THE FIRST FIVE CDS I BOUGHT AT TOWER RECORDS!

Memories of Tower Records, Seattle WA.
Sadly closed, and now sadly demolished.

Ah, those were the days. That was even before Tower Records opened its first shop in Singapore, at Pacific Plaza on Scotts Road. The year was 1991, and CD sales were hitting the roof worldwide. I had visited Seattle, Washington State and was on a lookout for some CD shopping. The biggest CD shop was Silver Platters but that was out of town, and the nearest was good old Tower Records, located near the Seattle Opera House and the Space Needle.

This was the first Tower Records I had ever been to, and was bewildered by the supermarket concept of CD shopping, with rows upon rows of CDs all arranged by category and in alphabetical order. Being more acquainted with the boutique concept, this was absolutely mind-blowing. And the idea of getting recordings not easily available in Singapore - especially the American labels - was the idea. 

Tower Records eventually opened in Singapore in 1993, and since then I had been to Tower all around the world (Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Kyoto, London, New York City and the original outlet in San Francisco). Nothing beats the first experience, and this was what I bought.

I had just heard the legendary Gyorgy Sandor
perform Bartok's Second Piano Concerto with the
SSO and had to get this for US$13.95
Later autographed by Gyorgy Sandor.

A new work by the still-living Olivier Messiaen,
from that 20th century specialist Salonen.
Later autographed by Esa-Pekka Salonen
and horn player Michael Thompson.

You couldn't find the American Arabesque
label in Singapore then.
Later autographed by Ian Hobson. 

Budget-priced historical recording at US$9.95
Also wondered what Tchaikovsky's 
"Seventh" Symphony sounds like.

Noticed this was the time when CBS Masterworks
was the label that issued those Ormandy recordings.
That was before Sony Classical came into being. 

Exercise in absolute nerditude: Anybody wants to know what I first bought at Kuala Lumpur's Tower Records?