My 3 Favorite Unexpected Record Store Finds of 2025

As anyone who knows me can tell you, leaving me alone in a record store to go through used vinyl and CDs is like leaving a kid alone in a candy store.

Actually, I might be even worse when supervised, because conversations lead to more buys.

My usual process involves putting together a stack of albums, and at the end of however many hours I’m there I pare it down to fit whatever budget I gave myself.

Sometimes I’ll find something I’ve legitimately been looking for, but what I love most about the dig is finding the unexpected, and the following are three of my most unexpected finds of the past year.

Laura Nyro’s typewritten press materials from over 40 years ago

I’ve had some interesting things slip out of record jackets over the years – from promos for VHS tapes, to a postcard you could send back for authentication – but this particular find didn’t slip out, it was stuck inside.

I’d been looking for Laura Nyro records since reading Clive Davis’ autobiography, in which he raved about her as both a songwriter, and a singer, so when I found Mother’s Spiritual while going through used vinyl, and saw it was in playable condition (always important when buying used records!), I picked it up.

After listening to the record I was having trouble getting it back in the jacket. I felt resistance, which was odd. That’s when I realized something else was in there.

I reached in, and pulled out three sheets of paper, one was the original typewritten press release sent to radio stations, and the other two, stapled together, were her typewritten artist bio.

While these types of things have no value to most collectors, to me they’re downright special. These pieces of paper, that so many people toss, managed to survive over 40 years, and in my mind they’re an amazing piece of music history.

The Japanese version of Don Henley’s Building the Perfect Beast

This one wasn’t technically a record store find, it was a library sale find.

Going through the numerous boxes of used CDs at Pequot Library, I happened upon Don Henley’s Building the Perfect Beast, which was an album I was more than happy to add to my stack for the whopping price of … I think it was either $1, or $2.

Turning it over I noticed the entire tracklisting was in both Japanese, and English.

I pulled out the booklet, and Henley’s bio was in Japanese, and the lyrics were in Japanese, and English.

Yes, I’d somehow found the Japanese version of Building the Perfect Beast at a library sale in Southport, CT!

Now, if I wanted to, I could attempt to re-learn Japanese (I took it for a few years in high school, and college) using the lyrics of “The Boys of Summer.” I wonder what “Deadhead” translates as?

One of Michael Bolton’s glam rock albums

Something not a lot of people know – or perhaps they’ve simply erased it from their memory – is that Michael Bolton wasn’t always a soul singer. He didn’t begin his career as a crooner that makes the ladies swoon. He started out wanting to be a rock star.

While digging through used vinyl I managed to find a slightly worn copy of one of his attempts at glam rock / arena rock, Everybody’s Crazy. Just one look at the cover and you know this isn’t going to be what you usually hear from him.

The album was his fourth, and his final, attempt at being a rock star before moving to more pop, and soul oriented fare. What’s a little weird about the album is that for many of the songs he doesn’t truly belt it out. It’s like, dude, you’re Michael Bolton, why are you holding back?

There are some nice guitar solos on the album, which were provided by Bruce Kulick, who’d later spend over a decade in KISS, and over two decades in Grand Funk Railroad.

The video for the album’s title track was immortalized on Beavis and Butt-Head, who, as usual, held nothing back.

You know what, Michael Bolton survived the critique, and has done pretty well for himself since (and as someone who lives in a neighboring town, he’s always welcome here if he wants to do an interview).

So those were my three favorite unexpected record store finds of 2025, and I’m looking forward to more surprises in 2026.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – THIS IS WHY WE DIG!!!