Not only is Christopher King a business teacher at the AAHS, he is also a lifelong music lover. 

After the pandemic 

Last year after returning to in person learning, King decided to share his music tastes with his students by bringing a crate of records in, along with a turntable. 

“With COVID-19 I thought, anything to get the kids excited to be in school and to bring some curiosity. It’s a good way to discover bands and really just conversation. Sometimes kids will tell me about some new bands. I’m not in the loop anymore. I used to pride myself on being in the loop. I was the guy who knew music; now people have access to the internet, and it’s a lot different,” King said. 

How his record collection started and progressed 

King grew up with records that had originally come from his mother’s teenage years. With likes of Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly and even some Jim Croce, his taste in music was constantly expanding. 

“When I first started building my own record collection, it was actually seven-inch records. Before the internet, if you knew a band that you liked on an independent label, you could get their catalog mailed to you and see what other stuff they had, and so that’s how I would order music. I would just mail order it and send a check in,” King said. 

Most of his early seven-inches were punk rock bands such as Lagwagon, Descendents and NOFX. While in college, over the summer King worked an internship for one of the biggest independent record labels, Epitaph Records. There he had the opportunity to work in music and meet famous people all while getting paid with any CD’s, concert tickets, t-shirts and any record he wanted which would add to his collection. 

“It was a good summer, and then when I lived in Pittsburgh, I used to go to the Record Exchange. Records were so cheap back in the day; it was my way of getting a huge library of music. So for a dollar or two I could go get a used AC/DC album or a Rolling Stones album and I just started to amass [records]. Every Friday I would walk in the neighborhood that I worked in, down to the exchange and rummage through the records that came in for the week. I’d take 10 or twenty records home for only $20,” King said. 

Scoring deals 

Over the years, King has accumulated many records from all over. 

“I’ve got thousands. When I was working in Carnegie, I went into this guy’s store one day, and I found some dollar records. He said ‘I’ll give you all of these for like $250.’ I think I got it for like $225 and I literally filled up my trunk, my back seat, my front seat and I probably brought a thousand records home that day,” King said. 

From his huge hauls and purchased lots, he had a lot of duplicates. He even gave some fellow teachers, Jamie Colman and Shane McBurney, both a copy of the Fleetwood Mac album, “Rumors.”

Collection wants and rarities 

Storing his records in his basement as well as his classroom, King has some gems and some missing pieces to his collection. 

“I do have a copy of The Velvet Underground & Nico album; it’s not in the best shape, but it’s an original. There is a really good Drive-By Truckers album called “Southern Rock Opera” that I wish I would’ve bought when It came out because now It just costs too much. If they repress It, I’ll probably buy it,” King said. 

What is to like about vinyl records? 

Some people may not understand the purpose of vinyl records. Some will say it sounds better and others say it’s a pointless disc. The difference comes down to if the album is recorded digitally or on analog. 

“The sound is typically better. People don’t realize you hear analog. Not all albums are going to sound tremendously better on vinyl. If they’re not recorded on analog, you’re not going to get the rich sound,” King said

He has his record collection and turntable displayed right inside the window of his classroom. King has music ranging from punk rock, heavy metal, classic rock and modern music.