Blue Village Vinyl

“Rising up, back on the street

Did my time, took my chances.

Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet.”

Those were the lyrics to the 1982 hit “Eye of the Tiger” by the band Survivor. The song enjoyed six weeks at the number one spot and would have been the number one song of the year if it hadn’t been for Olivia Newton John’s “Let’s Get Physical”. 1982 was an eclectic year for music. You never knew what genre was going to make it to the top ten. One thing was certain – no matter the style, artist, or band, that music was going to be on vinyl. In 1982, the public use of the internet was a decade away, and streaming music services were science fiction. Those first lines from “Eye of the Tiger” could be talking about vinyl itself. Here, in the future that is now 2022, vinyl is “back on its feet”. It’s gone the distance and has overcome its own “Clubber Lang” when vinyl sales beat out CD sales this past year for the first time since 1993.

If you had been around when “Eye of the Tiger” was on every radio, you might have bought Survivor’s album at a store called Remember when Records. That name is a thing of the past. In 2018, the Derers took over, and the store is enjoying its own resurgence as Blue Village Vinyl.

The “vinyl” in its name says it all. While you can still find CDs there, it’s the beautiful black (and sometimes colored) discs that line the walls. If you happen to land that copy of John Prine’s “Bruised Orange” you’ve always wanted, you can listen to it in the rear of the store at its listening station, which sits right next to a cardboard copy of the famous Capitol Records building. 

“We are constantly hunting down used vinyl collections and bringing them to our customers sometimes multiple times a week,” store manager Andy Derer says. “Our ‘New Arrivals’ section is always changing, so there should always be something new every time you come in.”

You never know what you’ll find at Blue Village Vinyl, but you can be sure it will be a brilliant mix of both old and new. “Having two generations of music lovers, my Dad grew up in the 60s and myself in the 90s, we are able to cover a wide swath of music,” Derer adds.

Always keen to talk about music, it’s not uncommon to find Derer happily chatting to customers about their latest purchase. Those purchases may sometimes include a stereo system and a Traveling Wilburys LP.

This leads me back to the band Survivor and its decades-old hit song. The lead singer on the song is Dave Bickler, but the man on the keyboards is Jim Peterik. Peterik wrote the song and many other anthems of the 80s (“Hold On Loosely”, “Heavy Metal”). It was Peterik who recently bought that stereo system and LP at Blue Village Vinyl.

The joy of vinyl is still in the air.

To experience it yourself, Drerer has some advice, “If you are in the western suburbs of Chicago, Westmont, IL, one time home of Muddy Waters, you have got to take some time and dig through our racks.”

You’ll be happy you did.