Rock & Roll Heaven — Attraction in Orlando

Wow, what a letdown after hearing some good things about this shop. They had an alright selection, I can say that at least. However, the prices, organization, and general care of their merchandise just made me shake my head. They were selling vinyl in there for 40-60 dollars that I have seen for literally half as much in other stores, and having been to at least 70 American record stores I would say I have had some experience. I'm also from CA, which is notorious for high prices, but I have never EVER been to such an overpriced store. I understand needing to make a profit, however this just seemed greedy to me. This was especially true of picture discs, which they seemed to be selling somewhere around the price of gold. Not kidding if we are looking at the weight/price correlation. So, it seems like a store that charges SO much for vinyl would take proper care of it right? Not these guys. So much of the vinyl was unsealed, had no sleeves (and, mind you, this was stuff they were charging top dollar for), and just haphazardly stuffed into a slot. The sleeves generally looked like crap, and the vinyl looked pretty dirty. This leads me into the sorting system they had generated. Very outdated (I mean, they had stuff like Europe in metal! Meanwhile most modern day metal bands were in Punk and rock, and many well known rock bands were just stuffed into a huge area labeled "rock, a-d, e-g, etc. while only the oldest of bands it seemed had their own labeled spacer. I got the impression the employees stopped actively listening to music in the mid 90's). Lastly, while talking about care, the store was very warm, amongst other things. While the temperature was probably not high enough to cause serious warpage, I would be wary buying anything that I was not able to listen to beforehand. On top of this, in the latter half of the 'rock' section, there were nails sticking out of the shelves, one of which tore my pants! Seriously, if you are going to charge so much, at least take proper care of your merchandise and store, and perhaps clean the place every once in a while. I would never go back to this place, I don't care if they will order rare things for customers, there is a place called the internet where you can do that for yourself for a...

This was my first time at a record store. I’m 15 and I love rock n’ roll, and when I walked in I knew I had entered somewhere special, sacred even. I had never owned a record before, had never seen the need for them. I thought, why spend so much money on something I can just listen to digitally? But when I saw The Beatles’ Revolver on vinyl, held Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde in my hands, something clicked. I could have sworn sparks flew when I touched the cover. This was the purest form of music, and it needed to be experienced this way. I decided then to start a vinyl collection and bought 2 records. I left that afternoon happily and went back to the hotel I was staying at. I continued to enjoy the spoils of Orlando, but my heart was not with those other activities. I wanted, nay, NEEDED to go back to Rock & Roll Heaven. So two days after that fateful first encounter, I went back and bought three more records. Now, spring break is over, I am going back to my hometown, and I can safely say I left a good portion of my soul with that store. Now, onto the practical elements of this review. The vinyl selection was, in a word, exquisite. Every genre you could imagine, they have it. And it wasn’t just vinyl, oh no. They had CD’s, cassettes, DVD’s, VHS tapes, every type of media imaginable. I’m no expert, but I found prices to be reasonable for the condition and rarity factor of the albums. The staff was very friendly, always ready to help, and you could tell they loved music and what they were doing with the store. The owner told me how, as a boy, he would hitchhike across town to the shop before he grew up and bought it himself. They also carry T-shirts, posters, masks, and various memorabilia for sale. And that’s to say nothing of the not-for-sale items. Vintage toys, posters, records, cardboard cutouts of stars, and others. And if you visit, make sure to check out the restroom. Signatures cover every surface and countless stars have signed as well as general customers. In short, this place lives up to its name. It truly is a heaven, and I look forward to going back...

As a 'newbie' coming back to vinyl after a couple of decades of being out of it, I originally didn't care for R&R Heaven. I felt like their pricing was too high for most records and the staff, while friendly, weren't overly interested in helping it seemed. Well, I've come around a little bit, don't you know.

While the vinyl can be pricey, it's also generally in great condition, and there's a lot of it. They have every genre imaginable and it's mostly separated by category. Now this is true of all record stores, not just R&R Heaven...but it's sometimes hard to figure out what genre to look under. For instance, I was looking for an Erasure album the other week. Would that be under 80's, alternative, pop, Britpop? Who knows. I finally had to ask someone and I think it was under pop or dance or something. I don't even remember but it wasn't where I thought it would be.

Oh, and that brings me back to the staff. They're super-helpful. Maybe I had just been in on off days before or something but every time I walk in the door now I'm greeted by the staff and generally asked if I need help finding anything.

And here's the best part of all....their $1 record section is awesome! I've spent a good 4 hours there cumulatively and haven't even gotten through half of what they have. Of course a lot of it is stuff I don't want but that's part of the fun of it....finding the gems. I've restocked a good bit of my 70's and 80's rock, pop collection from that $1 section. Definitely worth spending some time...