Sam the Record Man founder, Sam Sniderman, dies at 92

Sam Sniderman, founder of Toronto’s legendary music store Sam the Record Man, has died at the age of 92.

He passed away peacefully in his sleep on Sunday in Toronto, surrounded by loved ones, according to a statement released by his family on Monday.

A funeral service will be held 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at Benjamin’s Park Memorial Chapel and the family will later announce an October memorial service. Sniderman will be buried at Mount Sinai Memorial Park.

Sniderman and his brother Sid started a retail store — Sniderman Radio Sales and Service — on College Street back in 1937 but didn’t open up the flagship Sam’s store on Yonge Street until 1959 — the location best-known for its iconic neon sign with two spinning discs. The company eventually expanded into a chain with more than 100 locations.

Spencer Destun owns the last remaining Sam the Record Man store in Belleville, Ont., which first opened in 1979.

Destun said he and Sniderman didn’t always agree, but said he was a great man to be in business with.

“I got along famously with him. We argued and then we had coffee together,” Destun told CityNews.

“You don’t become an iconic music retailer in Canada in a very competitive business without being very intelligent … he knew when to take a risk and to take that risk at that time. A very influential man … very demanding and yet I think, for the most part, fair.”

Declining CD sales and other factors led to the Yonge Street store’s demise in 2007. The company was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2001. It reopened in 2002, but couldn’t recapture its former success, amid fierce competition from chain HMV and online music sales.

Hundreds of music fans turned out days before the Toronto store’s closure to buy items at a Sam’s auction, including framed gold and platinum records, parts of the store’s walls autographed by the likes of David Bowie, Ray Charles and Tina Turner and Beatles memorabilia, among other treasures.

The famous neon sign was removed from the building in October 2008, to allow the new owner, Ryerson University, to refurbish the building.

“Through his unique and successful business, which became a national enterprise, he brought energy and excitement to Yonge Street, and through his passion for music he provided encouragement and support to a generation of Canadian artists,” Sheldon Levy, president of Ryerson University said in a statement Monday.

“Sam the Record Man was a wonderful friend and neighbor of Ryerson University for almost 50 years. We are proud to be developing our new Student Learning Centre on the site of the former flagship store on Yonge Street. A site that was always a magnet for young people will be revitalized as a hub for this and future generations of young people, and retail.”

Sniderman was a Member of the Order of Canada, and was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.

He’s also credited for helping to found the Juno awards and was honoured by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Walt Grealis Special Achievement award in 1989 for his efforts to promote the Canadian music industry.

“Sam was the last of the great Canadian showmen that were able to establish themselves as household names purely through the force of their personality”, said Brian Robertson, a close family friend and chairman emeritus of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

“He was a mentor to literally hundreds of Canadian artists and musicians and the Yonge Street record store and Sam’s presence there was the centre of the Canadian music industry’s universe for over three decades.”

He was also given a Governor General award and honourary doctorates from Ryerson and the University of Prince Edward Island.

Sniderman is survived by his sons Bobby and Jason and his grandchildren Zachary, Jhase, Cosmo and Echo.

With files from The Canadian Press

[View the story “Reaction to Sam Sniderman’s death” on Storify]
 

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8 things you never knew about Sam the Record Man:

• The original sign at the Yonge Street store didn’t consist of the spinning discs. Instead it displayed the store’s address (347), and a vertical light thermometer, similar to the one used on the Canada Life building.

• The store is referred to in the Barenaked Ladies tune Brian Wilson as that “late night record shop”.

• Sam’s expanded quickly and eventually took over the business next door at 349 Yonge St. The name of the place it replaced? Steeles Tavern.

• Sam Sniderman became a member of the Order of Canada in 1976 and was said to be instrumental in bringing out the Canadian content rules that mandate the playing of homegrown music on the radio. He also has a Juno for Special Achievement in the industry. Not bad for a man who dropped out of high school at 16.

• Among the record buyers who have browsed through Sam’s extensive offerings – members of Rush, Gordon Lightfoot, Ronnie Hawkins and Elton John.

• The iconic spinning record sign has appeared in countless movies, including David Cronenberg’s Scanners and the quintessentially Canuck flick Goin’ Down The Road. Cronenberg worked at Sam’s Yonge store when he was a teenager.

• The giant store seemed bigger when you were a kid. But it wasn’t small to begin with. The Yonge location covered 40,000 square feet and carried 400,000 titles in 2002.

• The record buying ritual for many consisted of checking out Sam’s, then going two doors down to A&A Records, its closest competitor, to compare prices. A&A shut down in the 1990s.