User reviews

It's a great documentary, especially for those of us who remember a time before iTunes, when you had to go to a store to buy new music. It's very meaningful even for those like me who Tower Records was not the friendly neighborhood "supermarket" of music. I remember the Tower Records that was very close to me, but I went to another store, a store which probably had the same story (or at least the same ending to their story).

Actor, Collin Hanks directs this documentary of the rise and fall of an important landmark in music history, from behind the scenes (as we all are most likely familiar with the surface of the story (especially it's end).

The interviews and narrative take me back to the days when you could not download a single, and had to go into a store to buy an album. Watching footage of rows and rows of albums and CDs fills me with the memories.

And the documentary truly points out what an interesting place Tower Records was and how interesting the people who worked there are, as they talk to people who were either there from the beginning or started out as a stock clerk at the original store and worked their way up to VP of something. It felt like the cool place you wish you had a job at.

Especially if Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl was a fellow Stock Clerk. He and Bruce Springstein and Sir Elton John told about their personal experiences at the store and showed their love for it.

It seems so recent, but Tower Records is now just a part of music history. This doc did a good job of showing that history from beginning to end.

They call it luck, but it takes a particular type of wisdom to be at the right place at the right time. Russ Solomon had this in spades, when he branched out from his entrepreneurial father to expand into records. This movie is a blueprint of how to start a great business. First of all, have the vision. Secondly, get great people, give them freedom and back them up. Sounds simple, but very few businesses actually do this. In the movie, various key employees are interviewed and they all basically tell the same story. That is that they were given a chance to prove themselves and they rose to the challenge. Russ also realized that he could tap into the collective wisdom of all his employees and this he also did, especially with advertising and the Tower Records publication Pulse! It is refreshing to see the 60s again, the hope and the freedom. Russ also realized that he was not a financial type, so he hired an excellent money manager in Bud Martin. The demise of tower records was quite sad, but technology replaces one thing with another, so it was a tremendous ride.

Greetings again from the darkness. I do not envy those experiencing their childhood in this modern era. Sure, they have far superior electronics and hundreds more TV channels, but they also have very little independence (most can't even walk alone to a friend's house or a park) and they likely will never experience the pure joy of perusing the stacks at Tower Records (or any other record store) for hours … experiencing the thrill of discovering a new artist or style of music that rips into their soul. OK, I admittedly suffer from a touch of "old man" syndrome, but filmmaker Colin Hanks (yes, the actor and son of Tom) has delivered both a cozy trip down memory lane and a stark accounting of good times and bad at Tower Records.

With humble beginnings as little more than a lark, Tower Records began when Russ Solomon's dad decided to sell used 45 rpm singles in his cramped Sacramento drug store. He bought the singles for 3 cents and sold them for 10 cents. Within a few years, Russ purchased the record business from his dad, and proceeded to run it as only a rebellious kid from the 1960's could. From 1960 through 2000, the business grew each year. It expanded the number of stores (peaking at 192 worldwide) and constantly adjusted to the musical tastes and the delivery method – 45's, LP's, cassettes, CD's, etc.

Using some terrific photographs and video clips, accompanied by spot on music selections, director Hanks brilliantly and generously allows the actual players to tell the story. The expected celebrity drops are present, and even the words of David Geffen, Dave Grohl, Bruce Springsteen and Sir Elton John carry emotion. However, far and away the most impact comes from extended interviews with the unconventional and charismatic Tower Records founder Russ Solomon and his devoted and forthright employee team. Their sincere recollections provide the roadmap through the phenomenal growth, as well as the devastating end in 2006. We understand how these stores became so much more than retail outlets … they were cultural hotspots for at least two generations. We also learn some things we probably shouldn't … like the definition of "hand truck fuel", and the reason Russ installed hot lighting in the listening booths.

Mr. Hanks surprises with his ability to balance nostalgia and the harsh realities of the downfall of an iconic cultural business. The film captures the key role Tower Records, while also pointing out that the crash was due to more than just Napster and digital music delivery. An interesting case study for business majors highlights the importance of vision vs debt. For more insight from Colin Hanks, check out the interview from film critic Chase Whale: http://www.hammertonail.com/

"No Music. No Life". The motto of Tower Records was somehow inspirational, and fit perfectly for stores that featured mammoth album artwork on their store fronts, their own "Pulse" magazine, and staff that couldn't fathom life without music … much less wearing a suit and tie to work. This was truly "a chain of independent stores", and trust me when I tell you that hanging out at Tower Records was more fun than having hundreds of cable channels.

Just saw this today at Ground Zero, Sacramento's 75 year old Tower Theater that had right next door, Tower Drugs where the founder, Russ Solomon, started what became a world-wide musical empire.

I was not surprised at the influence Tower had on the recording industry, particularly after they opened up their Sunset Blvd store in Los Angeles. Didn't realize though that many big recording stars such as Bruce Springsteen and Elton John shopped there.

It's a fascinating look not only at the rise and fall of Tower Records, but the recording industry's changes over the years.

You'll even see how the Beach Boys changed their sales focus.

If Tower Records was in your life, and chances are if you are over 30 it was, this is a must-see.

Kudos to Colin Hanks, who spent seven years on this project.

I recall being excited to visit the Tower Records store in LA in the mid 1990s on my first visit to the west coast of the USA. When I returned a decade later to their San Francisco store, it somehow felt less exciting, the store looked a little too ordinary and it seems they were having a fire sale on. A few months later Tower Records had gone bust.

Colin Hanks documentary examines the growth of this record chain from its early years from founder's Russ Solomon's dad's drug store where he had a section which sold records.

Russ took over the business in the 1960s, starting in the west coast and moving to the east coast and then internationally to Japan.

As is the case, these heady years of the counterculture was a supposedly drug and drink fuelled hazy party for the staff (it always seem to be the case with maverick start ups.) Live hard and party hard was the motto. The staff I saw in the 1990s seemed to be mainly bored teenagers on minimum wage.

At the turn of the millennium Tower Records was valued at $1 billion. Their seemed to be no end to its success and they were determined to sell albums, preferably CDs.

The impact of online shopping was a body blow. The Apple Store allowed you to buy singles you wanted for 99 cents. Tower Records wanted you to buy the whole album for an ever increasing price and their online servers was on AOL.

Even worse the young IT savvy consumer could now get music for free from Napster and other torrent sites. Combined with the company's debt laden expansion, choppy waters awaited them.

The documentary interviews key staff from the early days as well as the man himself Russ Soloman who comes across as a charismatic maverick. We also get to hear from musicians such as Dave Grohl, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen about their joy in visiting the Tower Record stores, browsing, talking to aficionados. Elton admits he spent a fortune in their shops.

The documentary was a bit messy, in fact a little overlong. We see a former executive being fired by a new management team and how Russ took him out for a meal after a Christmas party which bought him to tears. I wanted to know why he was fired, why he could not get another job, what happened after he went for a meal with Russ and then the same executive turns up later on when the attention shifts to the company's declining fortunes.

In fact seeing some of the staff being interviewed I was impressed how they managed to become so big, it seemed to be more by serendipity than design.

Nostalgic, slowburning (sometimes a bit boring) story about the rise and fall of the biggest record store company in the world called Tower Records, which rose to fame during the seventies. Bruce Springsteen and Elton John declare their unconditional love for Tower Records, because both and many other famous artists where household guests at Tower Records, which opened an hour earlier especially for these popstars to let them be able to go on their weekly shopping spree for new records.

There was something quite special about that feeling of visiting an actual existing recordstore, which simple can not be experienced by simply downloading A TRACK.Going to the record store, with all these zillion records stacked up high, gave a feeling of coming home. And it was a home, for many music lovers AND musicians for many many years.

Internet killed the record store though after 2000. But the record store miraculously DID SURVIVE in Japan, of all places!

A bit too many management talking heads are the only downside of this documentary. For that reason I skipped the middle part. But the first part of the origin and rise to fame of Tower Records and the last part about the downfall are pretty interesting and fun to watch.

A loving look at an old store and its impact with lots of warm thoughts and good thoughts. Might not be much for people who didn't live it, but for anyone that remembers that era it's going to be worth seeing. Will definitely make you miss record stores and long to go to Japan.

Unlikeable men fall into a CANNOT LOSE business (baby boomer, rock buying generation) and milk the customer dry for decades. Despite making millions, and eventually billions, this is not enough for these offensive parasites. These supposed "businessmen" (actually simple-minded drunkards and coke heads), fail to see digital coming and greedily refuse to offer their goods at reasonable prices. Now that these people are exposed for the lowlife scum that they are, they can only weep at the loss of their jobs (and at the loss of a fellow drunk, a gentleman who hilariously, literally wears a lampshade on his head. What a cutup! This, and the David Crosby / walrus-mustachioed Cletus are these people's idea of interesting people.

Despite each working for decades, adding up to centuries worth of experience, in a music-related field, it is notable that music - remember music? - is never a discussion point for these selfish greed heads, only the good times they enjoyed and the incredible profit they were making, both at the customer's expense.

Tower Records was a good store in spite of these people. Everyone loves music, all you needed to do was sell it to them at a reasonable price. See the Beatles' Apple Records for a similar example of what happens when you put burnt-out hippies in charge of your business. It's a shame alright, shameful actions.

I live in a major east coast city and we never had a Tower Records but I was certainly aware of it and always visited when in NYC, or Los Angeles. It really did have its own sort of ambiance and each franchise was different. For me Tower Records was at its peak during the vinyl period.

Colin Hanks does an outstanding job of showing the progression of Tower Records from initially a Sacramento pharmacy selling 45's to an international record giant and the vision of Russ Solomon and his team of loyalists . Russ is portrayed as an all around good guy who enjoyed nurturing employees to find their strength and grow with the company. I loved the interviews with the employees and recording artists who loved the place. Unfortunately digital music and the death of the CD killed the stores . But Russ was not bitter and had a great attitude. Glad this was filmed before he died so we could get his perspective. An excellently paced documentary.

The "Rise" portion was nostalgic and interesting. The second half was a load of self-serving baloney: Russ Solomon admitting he made a few mistakes but, if the banks had only continued lending him money without telling him what to do, all would have been well. A bunch of longtime employees kvetching about losing their jobs, but not ONE SINGLE WORD about all the labels and distributors who got royally screwed and are still trying to cope with their losses to this day. I started out as a specialty music retailer in 1974 and, thankfully, am still going strong. I well remember Tower's predatory greediness, demanding ridiculous terms from labels and distributors: six months dating, 100% return privileges. Finally, the labels and distributors had to say 'no' to getting in any deeper. The fact that this painful fact wasn't even mentioned, reminds me of the 'ServPro' motto, "Like it Never Even Happened".

In what's a documentary that's likely to appeal to music tragic, collectors and those longing for the bygone era of in store shopping that moonlighted as an excuse to go and hang out with real people in a real environment, son of Tom Colin Hanks's documentary examination of the rise and fall of Tower Records may not achieve anything of a true noteworthy nature but it's certainly a thorough and insightful examination of the one-time retail juggernaut and a reminder that with our attention now on online retail and social media interaction, we are losing and missing out on a wonderful experience that used to be readily available to all shapes and sizes.

All Things Must Pass (inspired from a sign posted on a closing Tower Records store and no doubt the famous song) utilises extensive archival photos of the expanding businesses stores, over locations from the USA, Japan (where the name continues to do decent business) and England and Hanks finds a winning formula with a range of talking heads that were involved for many a year with Tower Records.

We get to spend a large portion of the docos runtime with founder and colourful character Russ Solomon who with nothing more than ambition and drive created a world spanning retail empire that's focus was on music for music lovers that extended from staff through to everyday customers or the not so every day like frequent store visitors such as Elton John and Eric Clapton. It seems like such a foreign thing in today's climate that employees started as packing room clerks to high end management and the focus Tower had on encouraging each store to have its own flavour and as long as the job gets done, who cares what happens before, after or in-between is something that is highly unlikely to be a practice of retail chains of the modern era.

All Things Must Pass will be a lovely walk down memory lane for those that use to count their visits to Tower Record stores as a weekly or monthly highlight and for those of us like me that never got to experience the wandering up and down of their aisles it's a pleasant and workmanlike examination of what made the name such a power in its early days and also a sad reminder of what today's consumers are missing out on 3 purchase happy Elton John's out of 5

1. Entertaining, as it seems we do everything either for our entertainment

or we do something to get something we can trade for entertainment,

Like money or free time. 2. Informative, so we can come away thinking about something. 3. Well crafted, so the flow is not broken by subtext's material that

may apply to a character, but not relevant to the subject.

This documentary is very entertaining, and is a wonderful window into history, albeit a small one. It is human, and very honest. During the time of Tower, the world had space for crazy, human, amazing stuff. The documentary illustrates this very well. Right time, right place, right guy, right idea. It was about freedom then, doing your own thing, being and loving what you do, and the film displays this very well. RUSS SOLOMAN VS. STEVE JOBS...now there is food for thought, although the food might come in a paper sack. We want entertainment, and we are getting it in spades. Was tower depicted as a phenomenon of the times it flourished? Sure, and what evolved from that, and all those young people who had the power of Tower? Whoops.

Colin Hanks directs a documentary about the iconic retailer Tower Records. In 1999, the company racked up $1 billion in sales. Five years later, it would file for bankruptcy. In the 50's, Russ Solomon got into selling used jukebox records in his father's drug store. It's a start of a business which grew into a social icon, international retailer, and a sales powerhouse. However, it grew too big with too much debt. A sick Russ tries to hand off the company to his son Mike. The businessman part of the company Bud had to retire due to illness. Napster and the internet is the final death knell. This is a fine production by Hanks. It lays out the story of the family retailer very well. The story is representative of many other retailers as well as showing an unique slice of the music industry. Some may get more out of this movie especially former workers or constant customers. It's also a bit more of a California story. At its heart, it is a story about the passing of an era.

It is not often you see a documentary that combines business, history, music, but most importantly nearly every viewer over the age of 30 living all over the world has a deeply personal connection to the film.

The old footage and photos I'm sure have never been seen by many people before, yet we all can relate to nearly everything. Watching this film took me back to my own life experience when I was young. Given Tower had been accessible to so many people on the planet Earth during its existence between the 1960's up until 2004, nearly everyone walked into one of their stores at least once, if not 100 times before they closed their doors.

The film does an amazing job of letting the viewer into the private side of Tower Records yet at the same time, celebrates everyone's own unique and personal experience of pursuing their exploration and celebration of the love of music. The interviews with the staff of Tower combined with the first hand accounts of the actual musicians who both made a living selling their records and acquiring records of other musicians they were inspired by is incredibly entertaining.

In retrospect, the film is a beautiful time capsule exploring the personal and public history of many generations of music fans, (my generation and probably yours) musicians, music industry insiders, and a poignant experience describing the real life story of the highs and lows of those who started an entire industry told by those who actually lived it.

Its a must see for 2016.

I confess I've never been to a Tower Records; even when I was on the west coast, I was an Amoeba patron. But All Things Must Pass finds the universal appeal of the music store as a communal experience, and Tower was the leading brand. When you've got Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and David Geffen singing its praises, you get a real sense of the chain as an industry heavyweight (for me, Dave Grohl was easily the highlight of these celebrities).

This is your classic fall-from-grace; they expanded like crazy, overleveraged, and had to go into survival mode when the industry suddenly changed to digital. In walk the bankers hacking and slashing until there's nothing left. This is a quality documentary, and Colin Hanks deserves credit for honing in on the people behind this store's meteoric rise. I can't explain why the downfall absorbed me more than the glory days, but I love that there's some kind of happy ending to this story. It's completely out of left field, but it's uplifting nonetheless.

For anyone that remembers growing up in the second half of the 20th century, going to the local record/CD store was a big deal. Perusing all the different albums, finding that one backcatalogue CD you'd been looking for, listening to something new was a lot of fun. In the US, the big name was Tower Records.

The history given in this documentary is mostly given from former employees, most of which started with the company early and stayed until the bitter end (or at least as close to the bitter end that they were allowed). There are also interviews with musicians such as Dave Grohl, Elton John and Bruce Springsteen. These interviews help shape the way we're supposed to look at the history presented.

It all seems pretty accurate, and is definitely entertaining. For those that used to shop at record stores it's even nostalgic. That said, the one big hole is that the main interviewee is Russ Solomon, the founder of the company. And while he makes for a great interview, one can't help but wonder if there's a part of the story not being told. The fall is kind of glossed over a little bit, pointing blame outward, when more can be pointed inward. Having a record executive admit that they killed the cheaper single to drive sales to a $20 album when most people didn't want the whole thing should have been dug into more.

In sum: If you have memories of shopping for CDs or records it's a documentary well worth watching. Just don't expect the full picture.

Documentary on international success Tower Records music store from director Colin Hanks begins with the caveat that Tower Records had earnings of over $1B in 1999--and yet, just five years later, filed for bankruptcy. In 1949, Tower Records founder Russell Solomon's father turned half of his Sacramento drug store into a music shop; when Russ wanted to expand on what they had, his father gave him the reins and made him president of his own company! In 1961, Tower Record Mart became Tower Records, and a new location employing young adults brought out all the neighborhood teenagers who hung out in the parking lot and made out in the listening booths. Tower Books later opened in 1962 while the music outlet expanded to the Bay Area in 1968, to L. A.'s Sunset Strip in 1970, and then onto Japan and New York City. Solomon had a huge success on his hands, a family-oriented all-purpose music emporium...but the music biz is fickle and transitory, and Tower needed to keep up with changing technology in order to stay in the game. This is a marvelous portrait of a incredible chain that lasted many years but seemed to vanish in an instant. Interviews with loyal employees and celebrity customers make the journey an intimate one. *** from ****

It's so sad that most record stores are gone, but thanks so films like this we have some precious memories saved. This was a very special store and location that I miss. A must see, especially for music fans and lovers of nostalgia!