Roswell Village – Doyle's Space

Turtle’s Records & Tapes

Even though the stores were uniform in their fixtures, decor, advertising and product line, each Turtle’s store still somehow managed to have a little bit of its own personality.

My entry into the world of record collecting began as chain record stores were successfully expanding throughout the Atlanta area. The Philadelphia-based Franklin Music had arrived in 1971, opening in Perimeter Mall. In 1975, the California-based Peaches Records opened their first Atlanta store on Peachtree Street. 1976 saw the very first location of Oz Records open in Buckhead. However, none of those chains could claim the impressive success that Turtle’s Records & Tapes experienced in Atlanta’s music retail scene.

Village Record Shoppe / Phase II Records

How Kiss and Coca-Cola bottles led me to discover my first independent record store.

When I reached the age of fourteen, I was beginning to purchase some full-length albums as well as the more budget-friendly 45’s. I had to do more planning and saving to purchase a full album, even more so if the album was a two-record set. The first of these double albums to appear on my wish list was a brand-new release from the band Kiss, “Kiss Alive II.”