Rock & roll era comes to end as Flashback Records closes

After 16 years on Lincoln Avenue, two DJs hit the road

By Deborah Taylor-Hollis

When Don McLean wrote about the music dying in "American Pie" he could have been describing the closing of Flashback Records, a unique Willow Glen retail store for the past 18 years and one of the few places in the entire Bay Area that had classic rock on its racks. Owners Denny Teresi and Ross Hartman have announced that the new and used record emporium will be closing permanently in April, taking their 10,000-plus inventory of oldies albums and dividing them up as each moves on to new ventures.

"Over 15 years, it's been a pretty good chunk of time," Denny said, reminiscing about how he and his partner, fellow KSJS disc jockey Ross Hartman, acquired the business at 2090 Lincoln.

Flashback opened its doors in June 1982 when Terry Travaso started the oldies record store, but within three months he sold out to Dave Satre, who ran it for another year, until Teresi and Hartman came along. Both had a yen not to only announce on the radio but also sell the records they loved to the public, and they had recently bought out the inventory and fixtures of Phonograph Records in Berkeley. While working out of a booth at Berryessa Flea Market they heard about Flashback being for sale, and became the proud owners on Oct. 27th 1983.

The storefront focused on hits (and misses) of the '50s, '60s and '70s. This became a monster market during the late '80s, when baby boomers began "re-collecting" their favorite older rock albums. The pair also did brisk business with local DJs looking for compilation albums or CDs. They carried lots of music from "cut houses," the final distributors of out-of-print artists.

"Yeah, you know how your album has that little notch out of it, or the cut on one side--that's a sign that it was discontinued and came from a cut house. That's where they got their name," Teresi points out.

"What I'll miss is seeing the regulars coming in all day, all the people, day in and day out, " he says.

Partner Ross Hartman will be doing more mobile DJ work. "Anytime somebody needs music, I'll drag my hired sound system out there and give 'em a party," he says. "I'll eventually be selling off some of my inventory, but right now I'm on vacation. The DJ business is keeping me very busy, so now I'll get to sleep in more."

For residents of San Jose, the store's closing means that the search for oldies albums and intelligent conversations with knowledgeable rockers just got a little harder.

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