ERNST VIKNE
You think you have a large record collection? Speak to Elton John
And he is not even the biggest collector
Recently, pop star Elton John gave an interview to American record collector's magazine Goldmine, when he also spoke about his massive record collection. In it, he said, "I have over 120,000 CDs and 15,000 pieces of vinyl. They are stored in my home shelves so I can access whatever I want, whenever I want."
In the Q+A John revealed that Doris Day's "Secret Love / The Deadwood Stage" was one of the first records he owned, and added that he decided to sell his first vinyl collection in 1989/1990 to "raise money so I could set up the Elton John AIDS Foundation." When asked about his preferred format (LP/CD/Tape etc), John replied, "I definitely prefer LPs."
It might be expected that musicians have such large record collections. For example, at the time he sold his original collection, Dr. Dre had 80,000 items. DJ Shadow, at one point, had 60,000 recorded items, while Vincent Gallo and renowned BBC DJ Giles Peterson had 35 and 30 thousand items respectively.
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But all these collections pale compared to what you can call mega collectors. The biggest is certainly José Roberto "Zero" Alves Freitas, a Brazilian businessman whose record collection of over eight million records is said to be the largest in existence. In addition, he has more than 100,000 compact discs.
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Stephen M.H. Braitman says:
I was the appraiser of that first Elton John collection that was sold at the benefit auction. Quite a task!