Licorice Pizza is a Los Angeles record store chain.[1] The name derives from a colloquial expression for vinyl records, comparing them to the color of licorice and the shape of a pizza.[2] It inspired the title of Paul Thomas Anderson's 2021 film Licorice Pizza.
James Greenwood opened the first Licorice Pizza record store in July 1969 in downtown Long Beach.[3] In the next fifteen years, multiple locations spread throughout Southern California. They became known for knowledgeable staff, all-request sound systems, getting new releases first, and giving away free licorice.[1] Greenwood recalls that the Licorice Pizza name was selected because he heard it to describe a record on the Bud & Travis... In Concert album and it sounded better than "Jim's Records." Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, worked at one on Sunset Boulevard in the early 1980s, where he first printed and sold his comic strip Life in Hell.[4]