We Just Got Featured by Discogs. 60 Years on the West Side Will Do That.

March 11, 2026

Published by Out of the Past Records | West Madison Street, Chicago

Discogs just put us on their front page.

Discogs just put a camera inside Out of the Past Records. What they found was ten rooms of vinyl, a grandmother still behind the register, and a story that belongs to Chicago.

Not a new store. Not a curated aesthetic. A 60-year-old record shop on West Madison Street in Chicago, run by the same family that started it, still standing in the same neighborhood that has lost almost everything around it.

Sixty Years on the West Side. Still Standing.

Charlie Joe and Marie Henderson started selling records on Chicago's West Side in the 1960s. Blues LPs, 45s, cassettes, 8-tracks — whatever format the music came in, they carried it.

At their peak, they ran 10 stores. Riots took some. Fires took some. Displacement took others. The city tried to bulldoze the Maxwell Street Market Charlie Joe loved, and he moved with it every single time they relocated it.

Out of the Past Records at 4407 W. Madison Street is what endured.

The Record That Started It All

Marie tells the story in the Discogs video. The first record that flew out the door was "Color Him Father." They put it on, sold 30 copies the first day, got 30 more, sold those too. Everybody wanted it.

That moment turned a photography studio into a record business.

Sixty years later, Marie is still behind the register. Still talking to every customer who walks through the door.

What 60 Years Actually Looks Like

Ten rooms of vinyl, 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs and music memorabilia. Funk, Soul, Blues, Jazz, R&B, Hip Hop and more. Collectors come from Germany, Japan, France and India specifically to dig here.

Charlie Joe was known as the Mayor of Maxwell Street. When vendors had disputes at the market, they came to him. He kept order with fairness. He was still at the market every Sunday in 2019. Practically blind. With his sons beside him.

He passed in January 2022.

Why We're Still Here

In 2020, Annisa Gooden, Marie's granddaughter, switched to overnight shifts at her day job so she could keep the store open during the day. Her grandfather had been diagnosed with dementia. Her grandmother wasn't going to put him in a home. The choice was close the store or figure it out.

Annisa figured it out.

"You can take over a family business. You don't have to hurry up and sell it and give it away. Once you find something that you love, it's easy."

That's the whole thing, right there.

One of Chicago's Longest-Running Record Stores

There are newer stores. There are bigger stores. There are stores with better lighting and a more curated feed.

There is not a record store in Chicago with a story like this one.

Six decades on the West Side. The same family. The same address since 1986. The music still playing.

If you've never been to 4407 W. Madison Street, now you know why people call it a pilgrimage.

Read the full Henderson family story

Out of the Past Records has been a fixture on Chicago's West Side for 60 years. Featured in WTTW Chicago, WBEZ, Block Club Chicago, Newcity Music, Austin Weekly News, Chicago Magazine and Discogs.