The Day the Music Died: Scotti’s Record Shop closing in Morristown

Scotti’s Record Shop, a landmark for Morristown music fans for nearly 30 years, is closing its doors this month to consolidate operations at its Summit location.

“We’ve had 30 great years running a great business in town. We’ve had great support, great memories…We’ve had a great run. I’d like to thank everybody,” said Gary Scotti, 52.

The new tenant has not yet been announced. Owners of the nearby Dark Horse Lounge had wanted to expand their basement bar into the Scotti’s space, but area residents raised concerns last month and the owners now say they are no longer pursuing those plans.

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Gary’s 25-year lease was set to expire next June. He said he cannot afford the inevitable rent increase; it’s been a struggle to keep the retail music store going in an era of cheap digital downloads. Although sales of t-shirts, head phones and used vinyl LPs have sustained him, he said, the economy has put many of his loyal customers out of work.

“A lot of them who would buy one or two CDs a week now might buy one or two used CDs a month,” said Gary.

The Morristown store will stay open through the end of December, and any returns, exchanges or gift cards will be honored at the larger Summit shop on 351 Springfield Avenue after the holidays. Scotti’s also will continue its online sales; the store sells a fair amount of used products via eBay and Amazon.com.

Gary’s father, Anthony, opened the first Scotti’s Record Shop in Summit in 1956 and added a Madison location. Gary expanded the chain to Gillette, Chester and Morristown. As of Jan. 1, only the original Summit store will remain.

“It’s going to be weird. They’ve been here forever,” said Susan Grimm, an employee in the Morristown shop who previously worked at the Gillette and Madison stores. She will work at the Summit location.

The Morristown operation started in 1983 at 27 South Street, the present home of Kebab Fusion. Gary bought out Gray/Matt Music, which had been in Morristown for decades. Scotti’s moved to its present space–a former bank–a few years later.

Many musical guests have visited the Morristown location over the years. When David Byrne of Talking Heads fame was in town for a concert at the former Community Theatre, he bicycled over from his hotel and signed autographs for hours.

Southside Johnny, Vanessa Williams, From Good Homes and Guster also made appearances there; concerts sometimes were held outside the store. MorristownGreen.com did webcasts from inside, featuring the Blaire Reinhard Band, Charlie and the Vanilla Faces and Steevan Mars.

“We had a blast,” said Gary. The Madison resident admitted some sadness about leaving and a desire to return to Morristown someday if he finds the right situation. For awhile he toyed with moving to the Community Place storefront formerly inhabited by Gallery Egan.

For now, however, he is concentrating on improving the Summit store, which has more than 10,000 used albums in its racks.

“I hope my loyal customers who still want the vinyl and headphones and t-shirts I sell will come to Summit,” Gary said. “If you want used vinyl, there are only so many places you can go.”

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