Click here to read the full article.
Another Black Friday, another Record Store Day Black Friday… that also happens to be pink Friday, yellow Friday, silver Friday, crystal clear Friday, “red and yellow splatter” Friday, “organic earth brown” Friday, “sky
blue” Friday, “black-and-white galaxy” Friday and… well, you get the picture. But the semiannual Record Store Day sales events in independent retail shops that happen in April and again in November are not just about fetishizing colored vinyl, but about giving the LP-loving public a shot at material that is either heretofore unreleased, not previously available to the public in this format, or long out of print.
Plus, this year, RSD has a growing number of CDs — it’s the kids’ new fad!
The lineup for Record Store Day Black Friday 2026 is out now, with about 185 exclusive titles lined up to go into the bins the morning after Thanksgiving. You can take a look at the official RSD website here for a full list of releases, as well as a guide to participating stores. But for starters, you can first check out our cheat sheet that previews 15 top titles that are either bound to be top sellers or otherwise caught our eye. These include titles from artists who’ve had a big footprint in RSD events of the past — like Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, the Grateful Dead and even the “Wicked” and “KPop Demon Hunters” franchise and Noah Kahan — to first-time participants like Katseye, Sombr, Victoria Monet and Playboi Carti.
Before scanning these highlights, know that the ’26 roster also includes artists such as Cher, 2Pac, the B-52s, George Harrison, Tori Amos, the Eagles, Coco Jones, Sparta, New Edition, Jason Falkner, Tom Verlaine, Rainbow KItten Surprise, Biz Markie, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Charlie Parker, Rae Sremmurd, Godsmack, the 13th Floor Elevators, XTC, INXS, NRBQ, Genesis, George Strait, Florence + the Machine, Motley Crue, Motorhead, Traveling Wilburys, Funkadelic, Albert Ayler, They Might Be Giants, the Pandoras, Jefferson Airplane, Old 97s, the Jerry Garcia Band and the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Again, consult the host website for details on all 185.
Now, our selection of teasers that are sure to have something to ensnare music buffs’ pre-holiday wallets and ensure they have little left over for friends and family:
Noah Kahan, “The Last of the Bugs”
10,000 copies
12-inch EP
Kahan has recently achieved the rare feat of having two albums in the top 10 on a regular basis. With this EP, he will up that total to three concurrent bestsellers, if only for the short time it takes this to sell out. “The Last of the Bugs” is made up of four bonus tracks that have accompanied his latest album, “The Great Divide,” in digital formats — including “Orbiter,” which has become a staple of his stadium shows, as well as “Lighthouse,” “Staying Still” and “A Few of Your Own.” Kahan has become one of RSD’s biggest draws with his regularly timed special releases, so fans will be happy Thanksgiving 2026 is no exception for him. As a bonus, he has a separate release also hitting the racks for RSD-BF: a 7-inch single of “Draw You Out,” his song from “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” pressed on “porcelain powder”-colored vinyl.
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, “Live at Tower Theater Philly 1975”
14,500 copies on 4-LP vinyl
3,720 copies as 2-CD set
For a lot of Bruce buffs, 1975 is where it’s at, and they’ll get plenty of it with this set — available as a limited-edition double-CD as well as on vinyl. There’ll be lots of flipping to get across all eight sides of the four-LP set, but it will be worth it to have all 18 songs in their entirety. The show was recorded on New Year’s Eve during the group’s run Philadelphia’s Tower Theater in the wake of “Born to Run” changing everything. How expansive are some of those 18 tracks? Well, for one, his cover of “Quarter to Three” gets its own side (side G, if you must know).
Katseye, “KATSEYE: The Dance Breaks”
5,000 copies
12-inch yellow vinyl EP
Includes three “dance break” live arrangements, as heard on the group’s “Beautiful Chaos” tour: “Debut,” “Gnarly,” and “Gabriela,” all on one side with an etching on the flip side of the yellow vinyl. (Each copy includes 2 of 6 randomly selected unique photocards.)
Prince, “3121 Las Vegas Live”
9,400 copies on 3-LP Crystal Blue Caraçao vinyl
2,700 copies as a 2-CD set
In January 2007, coming off his “3121” studio album, Prince was midway through a six-month Las Vegas residency and just says away from his legendary Super Bowl halftime show. This action-packed two-hour-plus set includes its fair share of greatest hits, but dig if you will the covers, including a Mavis Staple guest appearance on “I’ll Take You There” and dips into the catalogs of everyone from Chuck Berry and the Beatles to Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige and Gnarls Barkley.
Billy Joel, “Billy Joel Tonight”
4,600 copies on 2-LP black vinyl
And so it goes: That HBO doc has brought Billy back into the forefront of half the country’s consciousness, if it ever left, so this will be one of RSD’s hotter items. This post-“Turnstiles” show was captured on December 5, 1976 at Connecticut College for Joel’s first television special. Fifty years, Legacy says the show is being presented in stereo, newly mixed from the original multitracks. It also includes “I’ve Loved These Days” and “Souvenir” from a production session that took place the following day.
JID, “JID Live from NPR’s Tiny Desk”
4,000 copies
Recorded in NPR’s offices weeks before the release of “The Forever Story,” JID’s set features a live band and background singers and includes live debuts as well as older fan favorites, from “Never” and “Surround Sound” to the closer, “Kody Blu 31.”
Carly Rae Jepsen, “Day and Night (Continued)”
4,000 copies
Her recent studio album “Day and Night” gets a vinyl sequel with this collection of all eight bonus tracks, previously only available digitally, including “Reaching for a Star” and “In Pure Faith.”
Soundtrack, “Wicked + Wicked: For Good”
3,000 copies of pink and green-colored vinyl boxed set
The two previous “Wicked” soundtrack releases have been among the hardest-to-get RSD releases, and with only 3,000 pressed of this boxed set newly combining the two, you can once again to expect “Wicked” heads to be at the front of the line Thanksgiving night. Actually, if you’re not already in line, it may be too late.
Joni Mitchell, “Live at Carnegie Hall – 1972”
5,000 copies on 2-LP 180g black vinyl
Her second solo appearance at NYC’s world famous Carnegie Hall, broken out as an individual item from the “Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3” CD boxed set, in a gatefold jacket. Includes many of her most classic songs, from “A Case of You” to “The Circle Game.”
Sombr,”In Another Life”
7,500 copies on 12″ EP
Sombr still seems like such a fresh presence in pop that it does’t feel like he’s been around since 2023, but yes, his debut EP came out just over three years ago, and it finally makes its vinyl debut xclusively for Record Store Day on silver-colored vinyl.
Victoria Monet, “Life After Love, Pt. 1 & Act 2”
1,500 copies on brown and tan galaxy vinyl
Monet’s twin EPs put her on the map but have only ever been issued individually as physical releases until now. As the description says, “The dual project charts a complete emotional arc, chronicling the delicate journey from heartbreak to self-actualization. Part 1 delves into the raw vulnerability and quiet introspection of a breakup’s immediate fallout”, while Part 2 “turns the page toward rediscovery, blooming into an exploration of newfound confidence and sensuality… By pressing these two landmark EPs together on wax, this release offers long-time fans and vinyl collectors the ultimate way to experience Monét’s early masterwork as a unified narrative.”
Soundtrack: “Kpop Demon Hunters”
10,000 copies on “Derpy Sussie splatter” vinyl
As with the “Wicked” release, these “Demon Hunters” are no strangers to RSD already, but this version features “exclusive, all-new art created by official KPop Demon Hunters production designer Mingjue Helen Chen and visual development artist Marion Bordeyne Further expect holographic art on the front cover and triple gatefold, plus 3 of 6 mini inserts, 1 of 3 holographic mini inserts, a sticker sheet, and an oversized poster.
The Doors, “1966”
7,000 copies
Hope you like “Moonlight Drive” and “Indian Summer,” because those are the only two songs on this disc — even though it includes 28 (!) tracks. It’s look deep into a Doors session at Sunset Sound on August 29, 1966 as they laid down their debut album; the disc’ multiple takes “include chatter, complete takes, false starts, etc.” Neither of those two songs ended up making the final album, but they get their vengeance and then some here.
Playboi Carti, “Music – Sorry 4 Da Wait”
5,000 copies on red 2-LP set
It’s sometimes seemed like there is a dearth of hip-hop at Record Store Day, but this year feels like a different ballgame, with the first vinyl edition of Playboi Carti’s album from last year hitting as a red vinyl double-album on Black Friday.
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, “Blue Moon Over Paris – ORTF Recordings 1963-1968”
3,300 copies on 2xLP
Elemental Records and “jazz detective” Zev Feldman bring Blakey to the forefront of jazz buffs’ RSD lists with this release of two previously unheard sets from Blakey, recorded in Paris in 1963 and 1968, Delivering the message in the first pef=rformance: Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Cedar Walton on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Blakey on drums, doing songs including Henry Mancini’s “Moon River” and Duke Ellington’s “Caravan.”
The second set features Bill Hardman on trumpet, Julian Priester on trombone, Billy Harper on tenor saxophone, Ronnie Mathews on piano and Lawrence Evans on bass. Expect the usual book-length liner notes typical to everything Feldman oversees, which are just part of what make these worth picking up in LP format for RSD and not waiting for the CD edition to follow.
Zayn, “KONNAKOL (Deluxe Edition)”
3,000 copies on “concrete jungle” vinyl
The One Direction-er’s fifth studio album is expanded into an 18-track deluxe edition, pressed exclusively for RSD Black Friday.
10,000 Maniacs, “Candy Everybody Wants — The Complete Elektra Studio Albums”
2,600 copies of a 6-LP black vinyl boxed set
In the past for RSD events, Rhino has offered boxed sets offering complete (or at least complete from an artist’s specific label tenure) recorded works from the likes of John Prine, Randy Newman, Emmylou Harris, Dwight Yoakam and Linda Ronstadt, often with a bonus LP of outtakes or one-off tracks. This time around they give that treatment to 10,000 Maniacs’ first five studio albums — ‘Hope Chest’, ‘The Wishing Chair’, ‘In My Tribe’, ‘Blind Man’s Zoo’, and ‘Our Time In Eden’ — plus, yes, a rarities disc. It’s all been remastered and packaged under the oversight of former lead singer Natalie Merchant. A CD package of the same contents will be available as well.
Benson Boone, “Walk Me Home”
5,500 copies of EP on black and white “galaxy”-colored vinyl
Sombr is not the only hot young pop star whose debut EP somehow missed being part of the vinyl revolution until now. Boone’s breakout EP is finally hitting the format for RSD-BF, pressed on black & white galaxy-colored vinyl, with a 12” x 24” insert.
