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Today is Record Store Day; I'm going to be at work all day (don't feel bad for me, I already have too many records) but Toronto (and many other cities around the globe) will be bustling with vinyl enthusiasts visiting their local shops to dig through the crates for special limited editions and maybe take in some live in-store performances. And on their way home they'll probably look and feel like this young lady, right down to the record bag:

Sonora Phonograph Company, 1920 

T0 mark the occasion, here are a few vintage photos of record stores from the Toronto Star Photo Archive (located on the 5th floor of the Toronto Reference Library).

Boxing Day shoppers at A & A Records on Yonge St., 1975.  In the background you can see an ad for the Ken Tobias album "Every Bit Of Love," which the library has on vinyl

The legendary Yonge St. Sam The Record Man store, 1967

Willie Sportello (left) and Bernie Letofsky in their Yonge St. record store, 1979

Members of the Russian national hockey team shop for records in a Toronto department store, 1974

Reggae legend Stranger Cole in his Kensington Market record shop, 1978

A lucky fan gets her t-shirt signed by Derrick Ross of The Spoons at Sam The Record Man, 1984

Donna Speicher of A&A Records, 1985

A crowd behind A&A Records trying to buy tickets for a Duran Duran concert (as one did in 1984)