ENTITY · BUSINESS
Randy's Record Mart
Well supported
The record shop Vincent "Randy" Chin and his wife Patricia opened in 1958, selling used jukebox 45s from a small shop on the corner of East Street and Tower Street in downtown Kingston and named after Randy's Records of Gallatin, Tennessee. It moved to North Parade around 1960 and in 1962 into a former ice-cream parlour at 16-17 North Parade, where it became one of Jamaica's leading retail outlets and, with the studio the Chins built above it, the commercial and creative centre of the North Parade record district.
The Chins left for New York in 1977 and opened VP Records — Vincent and Patricia — in Queens; the 17 North Parade name survives as VP's reissue imprint.
At a glance
- Type
- Business →
- Confidence
- Well supported
- Sources
- VP Records, '17 North Parade'; Record Collector; Wikipedia (Randy Chin); ReggaeCollector; Discogs.
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Debate & reception
What people argued about this record — two documented positions each time, kept apart from verified fact. Browse every argument in the archive →
Who breaks a record — the shop counter or the radio?
One side
Shop-counter sales as the true tastemaker
The other
Radio playlists as the gatekeeper
Two documented views on where a Jamaican hit is really made, stated neutrally: one holds that counter sales and shop-front selectors were the true tastemakers who told producers and radio what mattered; the other credits radio DJs and station playlists as the gatekeepers that turned a local seller into a national hit. No verdict.
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