Back to School Shopping: Boogie Records 1980

Kalamazoo's Boogie Records welcomed students back to campus in 1980 with sale prices on records, tapes and paraphernalia.  

Boogie Records had two locations in Kalamazoo and Portage back in the day, and they had everything a music fan needed to boogie back to school.

The 1980 flier, shared by an admin of the Vanished Kalamazoo Facebook group has the essential albums a fan would need at the beginning of a new decade. Everything from AC/DC to Christopher Cross to Bob Dylan. Chicago, Carly Simon, Chic and Cheap Trick are are pictured, along with long players by Ramsey Lewis, George Benson and Al Di Miola. Boogie Records sold not only records, but 8-track and cassette tapes in the genres of rock, jazz, soul, country, bluegrass, blues, "etc. etc." Of course, the hip music fan with discerning tastes could get imports and special orders.

What made the store unique was the paraphanelia. "We have everything you need for a 'higher education,'" the poster reads with a wink. Today we might call these items "smoking accessories." (Purely for tobacco, of course.) Clothing, leather jewelry and "other Boogie stuff" is also advertised to welcome the "freshmen and freshwomen" to Kalamazoo and the ranks of cool. Boogie Records is where it was at back in the day.