HOUSTON \u2013 Walk into Memo\u2019s Record Shop in Houston\u2019s East End and you\u2019re not just walking into a store \u2014 you\u2019re walking into decades of history.<\/p>\n
The walls are covered in photos of big-name artists. The shelves are stacked with the music people grew up on \u2014 Juan Gabriel, Vicente Fernandez, Selena, Jose Jose, and Luis Miguel. And behind every photo, every album and every memory is the same family that has kept this place running since 1968.<\/p>\n
The man in those photos \u2014 standing shoulder to shoulder with some of Latin music\u2019s biggest stars \u2014 is 87-year-old Guillermo \u201cMemo\u201d Villarreal. He was home resting when KPRC 2 stopped by, but his impact is everywhere you look.<\/p>\n
His son, Memo Jr., grew up in this store. Now he\u2019s the one running it \u2014 and he\u2019s got stories that would make any music fan stop in their tracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Charro outfit was given to my dad in 1975,\u201d Memo Jr. said. \u201cHe was a promoter then, and there was a presentation of several artists. When it was Vicente Fernandez\u2019s turn to perform, the audience rushed the stage and this particular person ripped off one of his pieces. After the event, Vicente was all excited \u2014 and so was my dad \u2014 so he asked for the suit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The elder Villarreal wasn\u2019t just selling records. He was helping bring Latin music\u2019s biggest names to Houston \u2014 including what Memo Jr. says was Juan Gabriel\u2019s first Houston performance at the Arena Theatre in 1971. There\u2019s even a photo of Memo Sr. at the White House alongside President Jimmy Carter, taken in 1979.<\/p>\n
These days, Memo Jr. says it\u2019s vinyl that\u2019s really moving off the shelves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have good support from the community,\u201d Memo Jr. said. \u201cWe have like third and fourth generations coming to the store now. A lot of young people are reminiscing about their parents and grandparents.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if vinyl isn\u2019t surprising enough \u2014 cassettes are making a quiet comeback, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still got customers asking for cassettes,\u201d Memo Jr. said. \u201cI\u2019ve got young people coming in the store with Walkman\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the kind of place where the saying \u201ceverything old is new again\u201d fits perfectly. But more than the music, Memo\u2019s has become a cornerstone of the East End community \u2014 one that\u2019s hard to imagine the neighborhood without.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe enjoy what we do \u2014 we don\u2019t really do it for the money because sales aren\u2019t like before,\u201d Memo Jr. said. \u201cWe\u2019ll continue until we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Memo Sr. \u2014 health issues have kept him away from the store for now. But according to his son, that won\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n
Memo Jr. said he saw him this morning and he said he\u2019s anxious to go to the store.<\/p>\n
Until then, the founder of one of Houston\u2019s most beloved institutions is trading photo ops with music legends for something even better \u2014 quality time with his grandkids.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Walk into Memo\u2019s Record Shop in Houston\u2019s East End and you\u2019re not just walking into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[151968,6104,151970,56,130851,58,57,151967,151971,151972,151969],"class_list":["post-438557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-cassette-revival","tag-family-owned-business","tag-guillermo-memo-villarreal","tag-houston","tag-houston-east-end","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-juan-gabriel-houston-1971","tag-memos-record-shop","tag-vicente-fernandez-memorabilia","tag-vinyl-resurgence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}