Friday afternoon, the school bell rang

We'd hurry down to Main

Past the diner and the five-and-dime

To that little record place

There were posters hanging on the walls

And music playing through the door

We'd spend an hour just looking around

With a dollar or two, maybe more

Those wooden bins were full of treasures

Alphabetical from A to Z

We'd flip through every album cover

Looking for the one we'd need

Some had faces we all recognized

Some had pictures strange and new

And sometimes we'd buy a record

Just because we loved the cover, too

Oh, take me back to the record store

Where we spent our younger days

Flipping through those cardboard covers

While our favorite music played

The smell of vinyl, the sound of laughter

And a hundred songs to explore

We didn't know we were making memories

We were just kids at the record store

I remember saving up my money

For an album I just had to own

Carried it like something precious

All the way back home

I'd tear that plastic wrapping open

Pull the black vinyl from its sleeve

Set it gently on the turntable

And lower down the needle carefully

That first little crackle from the speakers

Before the music came alive

Was worth every penny that I'd saved

And every minute spent inside

I'd stretch out on my bedroom carpet

With the album opened wide

Reading every word of every song

That they'd printed there inside

I'd study all the photographs

And memorize the names

Of the people playing instruments

And the ones who wrote the songs I played

Oh, take me back to the record store

Where we spent our younger days

Flipping through those cardboard covers

While our favorite music played

The smell of vinyl, the sound of laughter

And a hundred songs to explore

We didn't know we were making memories

We were just kids at the record store

There was a girl who worked there Saturdays

With long brown hair and faded jeans

She knew the words to every record

And every song I'd ever dreamed

She'd tell me when a new one came in

And save a copy just for me

And I'd find another reason

To stop by after three

We never had a thousand songs

Waiting in our pockets every day

We had to save and choose our favorites

And take the time to let 'em play

And when you finally owned that record

You knew every word by heart

From the first song on the first side

To the last one on the chart

Oh, take me back to the record store

Just one more Saturday afternoon

Let me hear that bell above the doorway

And my favorite record playing through

Let me flip through all those albums

With the whole wide world ahead

And carry home a little music

That I'd play beside my bed

Oh, take me back to the record store

Where every song was something new

When an album wasn't just a record

It was a piece of life you knew

I found an old album yesterday

In a box beneath the stairs

The corners worn, the cover faded

But the memories were still there

I slipped that record from its sleeve

And watched it slowly turn

Then the needle touched the vinyl

And those old familiar sounds returned

I opened up that cardboard cover

Read the lyrics like before

And for a little while, I was seventeen

Standing in that record store.