An all-time record merchandiser

For a retailer with 4 million vinyl records, in a day and age when few people own turntables, Val Shively seems oddly standoffish toward customers.

Among the Soup Nazi rules at R&B Records, his Upper Darby store, are a posted "no browsing" policy and a 5-minute time limit for shoppers.

A red "Do Not Enter" sign covers the bottom half of the shop's entrance door.

But if random walk-ins aren't exactly encouraged, a warm welcome awaits music lovers who still carry a torch for R&B and doo-wop oldies, the beloved hits and B-sides of Shively's youth. We'd encourage those people to disregard the signs and stroll inside.

Indeed, if this style of music is your passion - and Jerry Blavat's crossover to

WXPN suggests a new audience is swooning for the soulful vocal harmonies of yesteryear - we have one thing to say: Go there.

Go there now. Skip lunch or work, or whatever it is you think is more important, and go there today. Your humble reporter has made a career of uncovering the secrets of Philly, and she has never seen anything like this.

In a three-story warren of floor-to-ceiling shelving (built by a local carpenter/collector who's paid in vinyl records), Shively has amassed what's widely believed to be the world's biggest and best collection of 45s. His record store belongs right up there with the Barnes Foundation on the list of the Philadelphia area's great treasures.

Should he invite you behind the counter, you'll enter a labyrinthine repository of singles, obsessively cataloged by label: Cameo, Capitol, Caprice, Checkers, Dootone, Drexel, ad infinitum. "When you see them, you're going to say, 'My god, this is insane,' " Shively says.

Good call.

Four million is a lot of records.

How awe-inspiring is the stash? When Motown can't put its finger on one of its old discs, the label's people call Shively.

Most of his business is through mail order to serious collectors.

He's got nine fat Rolodexes with contact information for customers all over the world. "And I write on both sides of the cards," he says.

But to order a record by phone instead of making the pilgrimage to Upper Darby would be like buying a Mutter Museum "Soap Lady" souvenir on eBay.

Virtual reality can't hold a candle to the singular eccentricity of the real thing.

R&B Records, 49 Garrett Road, Upper Darby, 610-352-2320. Open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.