Great Music Mags: RECORD (1983)

The above advertisement first appeared on page 75 of the November 26, 1981 issue of Rolling Stone, the one with William Hurt on the cover though in it's editorial hipness, the magazine called him "Bill". The Record, billed as a Rolling Stone Special Interest Magazine, promised some pretty cool features, all focused on music without the growing Hollywood focus of Rolling Stone, so I was tempted to become a charter subscribe (I mean Charter Subscriber) though after some thought and detailed accounting of my meager not yet employed finances at the time, I decided to go all in and subscribe to Rolling Stone itself early in 1982.

Maybe it was no coincidence that, just as Rolling Stone switched from its original, long-running newspaper print format in 1981, they also launched another magazine printed on newsprint that same year. The Record launched with Vol. 1 No. 1 dated November 1981 with a cover price of $1.00, which equals a little more than $2.50 these days. (Rolling Stone itself was selling for $1.50 an issue in 1981 - the recent Bowie covered issue #1254 dated February 11, 2016 is priced at $4.99) As far as I can tell, the final issue published was the Jan/Feb 1986 issue. While I read most of the issues loitering at the base exchange or at B. Dalton in the mall, I ended up only buying maybe half a dozen issues of The Record from various years, all of which I regrettably discarded in 2000 when we relocated here to the curent location of The Hideaway. Below are all the cover images of Record I discovered on eBay from 1983 including a few open fold shots.

January 1983

February 1983

March 1983

April 1983

May 1983

 

 June 1983

July 1983

August 1983

September 1983

last newsprint issue

October 1983

 first glossy issue and new price of $1.25

November 1983

December 1983

another change in font for the title banner

You may have noticed a difference in the lower left covers of some issues since the Premier Issue from November 1981. Some have barcodes and were printed to be sold (or mailed) while others were printed with the words A Rolling Stone Publication in the little white square where the UPC appeared.  These issues were meant for subscribers as well as promotional use - free issues mailed to critics and radio stations or distributed at trade shows and concerts.

Several of the cover subjects above appeared on the front of RECORD before or after their appearance - just like the song sez - on the cover of the Rolling Stone:

 

Soon, we'll be reviewing the covers of Record issues from 1984!