Ep. 91 Pete Pataro (Washington DC, Annapolis MD, Cherry Hill NJ)

2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

“ ‘There’s a place called Tower Records’ and the way that he described it, it was a supermarket of music! It’s got two stories. I was like, wow…I’ve gotta go there!” Not only did Pete Pataro *go* there, he had a 15-year career - starting in that Washington DC store, assistant managing in the brand new Annapolis store, and eventually running Cherry Hill, NJ for 10 years.

Along the way, Pete was a sponge, learning about genres, bands, sidemen, and all facets of music, the music business, and retail in general. While in Washington DC, a store that had a lot of turnover due to being directly across the street from George Washington University, Pete was tasked with assisting in the interviewing and hiring of staff. He hired several people who would go on to be General Managers in the company. Pete also lays claim to having hired one Dave Grohl. By our esitmation, that’s the fourth Store #130 employee laying claim to Grohl’s illustrious 6-week career.

It was in Cherry Hill New Jersey that Pete found his groove. Located right next to one of the busiest (at that time) malls in America Cherry Hill was the perfect “suburban” Tower Records location. Strong in metal, alternative and hits, it would explode each Christmas, outperforming other stores of a similar size and weekly gross. Pete had a strong supporting cast and talked about some who worked alongside him.

No Tower Records/Pete Pataro conversation would be complete without Pete telling us about the time actor Joe Pesci (“Goodfellas”, “Casino”, “My Cousin Vinny”) called Russ Solomon, without Pete’s knowledge, to intervene because of Pete’s suspension by his Regional Manager.