Russ Solomon, who changed music retailing with his chain of Tower Records, died yesterday. According to his hometown Sacramento Bee, Solomon died while watching the Oscars. He asked his wife to refill his whiskey glass and when she returned, he had died.
He started marketing music in 1941, a sixteen-year-old kid selling used 45s out of his father’s drug store. By the time the last Tower Records closed, in 2006, he had built Tower Records throughout the world, with annual sales of more than one billion dollars. 
His main innovation was to expand the size of record stores, and stock as much music as possible. The stores where huge, clean, well-lit, and filled with every kind of recording imaginable. For music fans, a trip to Tower was like being a kid in a candy store. It was possible to walk out with their trademark yellow and red shopping bag bulging with rock, jazz, classical, soul, and music that didn’t fit into any known genre. But the company expanded just as brick-and-mortar music sales were starting their decline. Amazon.com and, later, music downloads made it easy to get music without leaving your home, and the company finally shut down for good in 2006. The fine documentary, “All Things Must Pass,” chronicles the company’s history.
Tonight, why doesn’t everyone dig into the music collection, pull out that album you know you bought at Tower, pour yourself a whiskey, turn up the volume, and toast Russ Solomon.
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