Birdel's Records: A Neighborhood Staple Bids "Adieu"

For 65 years, Birdel’s Records has been a staple in the Bed-Stuy community. But this Saturday, the record shop will close its doors for good, marking an end to a very long era of vinyl records and rare music in Bed-Stuy.

Originally owned by a Jewish couple, the store was bought out by its current owner Joe Long, after he worked for ten years in the store.

For many years, Birdel’s thrived as the go-to shop for rare and obscure records. Although the record store specialized in “Oldies but Goodies” and Gospel music, it carried a little bit of everything, from Adele’s latest album, 21, to classic hits by Frankie Lymon.

“There was a saying: ‘If you can’t find it at Birdel’s, you can’t find it anywhere,'” Long stated.

However, times changed and patronage dwindled.  

Long said, with everything being on “download, online, bootleg, iPod,” fewer and fewer people were coming in to buy CDs or albums.

These factors, coupled with a three-year span of no profit, led to Long's decision that it was time to close.

“I’ve been coming here since I was a kid, and I just retired, so I know he’s ready,” one patron said.

Long wanted to retire in 2007, but Birdel’s Records was such a staple to the community, there was an outcry to keep the doors open.

“People liked the one-on-one contact, that’s what we were; we dedicated our lives to the customer,” Long said.

Say, if you came into the store and wasn’t sure of a song, you could hum or sing the beat, and the staff at Birdel’s would find it for you!

While Long is closing the doors of Birdel’s Records on Nostrand Avenue, he is in the works of creating an online store under the same name that will offer the same CDs, DVDs and albums.

Long wants the legacy of Birdel’s Records to be remembered in Bed-Stuy:  He is working on renaming the stretch of Nostrand between Fulton and Atlantic Avenues “Birdel Way.”