Last year’s RSD Black Friday event broke all previous sales records since the organizers of Record Store Day began working to make record stores a part of the largest shopping day of the year. It was an amazing day. And again this year, musicians and labels have created special releases that can only be found at independent record stores during the holiday shopping season, a very nice way to show their support for these important small businesses. Shopping for these titles, and anything else at a record store this season – as a gift for yourself or others -- is a very nice way of showing yours.

Let’s take a look at some of those releases, coming to record stores starting Friday, November 29.

RSD Black Friday’s release of Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard And Soft [Isolated Vocals] is a variation of her latest album, featuring the isolated vocal recordings:  a stripped back, raw showcase of the songs, highlighting the power of Billie’s vocals. An exclusive inverted album cover makes it that much more unique.

Billie Eilish’s favorite band, The Beatles, released “I Want To Hold Your Hand” as a 7” single in the US in January 1964. It rapidly climbed to #1 and stayed on the chart for more than three months, selling more than 12 million copies. A faithful reproduction of this 7” (their first for Capitol Records) is one of two Beatles singles on the RSD Black Friday list this year, cut from the original US master tapes using an all-analog cutting process.  The Fab Four’s “All My Loving” is also coming to record stores on November 29, as a limited edition 3” single (packaged with a fab Beatles-branded 3” vinyl carrying case!) to complete the collection of 3” singles celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Beatles Ed Sullivan Show appearance and 1964 American Tour. (The other four songs played during their historic TV appearance – “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, “Till There Was You”, “She Loves You” and “I Saw Her Standing There” --came on Record Store Day 2024 this past April.)

Noah Kahan and Olivia Rodrigo thrilled fans with their split single 7” on Record Store Day in April, and they each have a release on the RSD Black Friday list as well.  Olivia’s GUTS (spilled) gets pressed on red and purple marble vinyl for a deluxe double vinyl edition of the full collection of GUTS songs, and Noah’s Town Hall (Stick Season Collaborations) is a standalone album that features all eight of the collaborative tracks on Stick Season (We'll All Be Here Forever), featuring Post Malone, Lizzy McAlpine, Hozier, Gracie Abrams, Sam Fender, Brandi Carlile, Gregory Alan Isakov and Kacey Musgraves.  Kacey herself is supporting record stores on November 29 with her Deeper Into The Well release, on green eco-vinyl in packaging made of recycled materials, is an album with seven new tracks and a “20 minute woodland sound experience”.

Fans have come to know how much certain artists love record stores and look for their names on the lists of titles every year. U2 and The Doors don’t disappoint this November. U2’s How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb is a sort of standalone shadow record, pressed on red and black vinyl, made up of tracks –recenlty rediscovered -- from the recording sessions for How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, the U2 album celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year.  The Doors’ May 8, 1970 performance from the Detroit’s Cobo Arena is caught on the Live In Detroit 4 LP set for the first time. A stop on the band's Roadhouse Blues Tour, the fiery set includes a number of blues covers including “Back Door Man”, “Mystery Train” and Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads”. It also happened to be one of the band’s longer shows -- they played an hour past curfew and got themselves banned from the arena on future tours! This RSD Black Friday collection captures the band at an absolute live zenith.

Sometimes, though, live shows don’t go as well. And while the news about Jane’s Addiction’s return to the stage with the original line-up intact has not been what fans wanted, there is new music out there to celebrate. The “Imminent Redemption” 12” single contains two new Jane’s Addiction tracks and a sleeve insert with art and handwritten lyrics, and on a limited number of randomly distributed copies: the autographs of various band members. God bless Jane’s Addiction.

There’s a lot more music to talk about on the RSD Black Friday Official List.