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For over 60 years, West 48th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues was known as “Music Row”.

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Legendary stores such as Manny’s, Sam Ash, Rudy’s, Alex Music, and Greco’s served New York’s music industry, with the likes of David Bowie, Paul McCartney, and Bob Dylan stopping by between gigs to pick up some gear.

 

Manny’s, at 156 West 48th Street, was the heart and soul of Music Row. The signed photos that lined the walls were a Who’s Who of Rock' n Roll legends.

 

Owner Henry Goldrich had a reputation for being blunt with customers, refusing to let anyone try out a guitar unless they were serious about buying it - “Do you have the money? Show me the money.”

 

It didn't matter if you were Jimi Hendrix,  Eric Clapton, or a kid in a garage band - a beaten-up Danelectro guitar named “Old Yellow” was the only guitar you could play to test out an amp or effects pedal. 

 

When asked if he played an instrument himself, Goldrich replied, “I play the cash register.”

 

Just a few doors down from Manny’s, across the street from Rudy’s Music Stop, was Right Track Recording at 168 West 48th Street.

Autographed publicity photograph of Foreigner from Manny's Wall Of Fame.

Foreigner’s Mick Jones says the inspiration for “I Want To Know What Love Is” came to him at three in the morning. “I don’t know where it came from. I consider it a gift that was sent through me. I think there was something bigger than me behind it. I’d say it was probably written entirely by a higher force.”

 

Jones worked with lead singer Lou Grams to craft the melody, lyrics, and arrangement. “There'd be moments where it was just magic, and then we'd hit our head on something creatively that we couldn't get to the next point.” says Gramm, “So we almost had to put the song away for a couple of weeks and come back to it again. I felt we had worked our tails off to make that song what it is.”

When it came to the recording, Jones was searching for a way to enhance the songs’ spirituality - even contemplating approaching Aretha Franklin, when a friend gave him a recording of the New Jersey Mass Choir. “When I heard them, I immediately had the finished song in my head.”

 

“We got about 30 of the choir into the Right Track studio in New York. We did a few takes, and it was good, but it was still a bit tentative. So then they all got round in a circle, held hands and said The Lord’s Prayer. And it seemed to inspire them, because after that they did it in one take. I was in tears.”

 

With recording completed, Jones and Gramm had to determine the percentage of ownership based on each musician’s contributions.

 

“We would exchange folded scraps of paper and verbally hash things out,” Gramm explained. “I think I wrote down 65-35. He wrote down 95-5. I was so stunned and crushed that he'd think I contributed next to nothing to that song.” 

 

“I said, 'Five, Mick? You should just keep it all.' And he did! He just kept it all. And you know the millions and millions that that song has brought in?"

 

“I Want To Know What Love Is” was Foreigners' first US number-one hit, knocking Madonna's  "Like a Virgin" off the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1985.

 

“It was No.1 worldwide,” says Jones, “Everybody took their own meaning from it. And that’s all you can hope for as a writer.”

After 74 years in business, Manny’s closed in 2009. Within a few years, the remaining music stores on West 48th Street either closed or relocated, and by 2016, Music Row was gone.

 

What was once a prime location with musical cachet soon became a liability for Right Track Recording, later called MSR Studios, as the redevelopment of Times Square brought major construction projects all around the building.

 

In 2014, work began on a 42-story hotel at 701 7th Avenue, directly behind the studio.

 

“Every time they took out a drill, we could hear it in Studio A and Studio B,” says owner Dave Amlen. “We recently had a superstar artist in here, and he wanted to start recording at 10:30pm, but asked, ‘What the fuck is all that noise?'”

 

When Amlen learned of plans to build a 36-story hotel across the street and a 38-story hotel in the middle of the block, the studios' closing was inevitable.

 

“It’s hard to record an orchestra when you have a jackhammer going in the background,” said Amlen. The last day of recording sessions was June 30th, 2016.

In 2023, 168 West 48th Street was one of three buildings demolished to make way for a 32-story glass-and-steel hotel with its entrance on Seventh Avenue. The 400-room Hotel Vocco is set to open in December 2025.

 

Across the street the Hard Rock Hotel towers over the construction site, claiming to offer a “backstage pass the city’s historic Music Row”, “honoring its legacy” with “award-winning guest experiences.”

 

The New York Post called the hotel “the biggest slap in the face of all of those schlock factories because it so flagrantly steals from the rubble it is standing atop.” 

 

Despite a lobby full of Rock’n’Roll memorabilia, including gold records by Blondie, The Beastie Boys, Kiss, and The Ramones, there is no mention of Foreigner, Whitney Houston, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Madonna, Metallica, George Michael, Lauren Hill, Sting, David Bowie or The Rolling Stones having recorded across the street.

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