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ATM – Jukebox Jury

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Next week there will be a new arrival at Dysin Towers, a 1962 Ami Continental 2 jukebox. It’s part dream, part record storage solution, part investment, what I is to fill it with quintessential jukebox records. My love of the jukes started at college in 1979 so there will be plenty of Elvis Costello and Squeeze hits from around that time, but I’ve 100 slots to fit so the question is – what should I scour discogs for? It doesn’t have to be a big hit or hip cool, just songs that sound great through a jukebox.

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Comments

  2. I’d load it entirely with rock ‘n’ roll from the beginning (‘Mystery Train’, ‘Tutti Frutti’, ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’) to rock ‘n’ roll at the end (Elvis joining the army and getting a haircut).

    • Not an area of great knowledge for me, the guy I’m buying if off had a beautiful 1942 Wurlitzer in his house filled with old rock n roll 78s, I reckon you could have wasted quite a bit of time with that!

      • It has long been my intention to purchase a vintage juke, but whenever I’ve been close, another more pressing expense crops up and the dream fades.

        Can I ask if you bought it privately or from a dealer Neil? I have heard good reports about ‘All you need is jukes’ in Norfolk, and they have a nice selection on their website.

        I’m guessing the best part of 5 grand is required for a top restored model – one day soon!!

        • I went straight to All You Need is Jukes!

          Viv will be delighted with the mention, I’ll be sure to tell him! Prices vary depending on model, condition and age. I reckon 5 grand is entry level for a fully restored solid state late 70s early 80s juke, I’ve paid a bit more but the older American mono valve amp models are good investments apparently. eBay is much cheaper but Viv was telling me of eBay buyers who have contacted him to restore “bargains” they have bought only to find it would be impossible to restore without doubling or trebling the price already paid. It’s caused him so much hassle that he now won’t restore jukes other people have bought.

          • Oh well, I shall look at a higher budget then – I would definitely want a 50’s/early 60’s model.
            I liked the look of the website, the guy seems like a real enthusiast, and the promise of ‘after-sales service’ appeals.
            I have looked on Ebay in the past, but its just too much of a gamble – I would rather pay top dollar for a quality restoration which will hold its value.
            My key bargaining chip with my significant other is that it will hold it’s value and be a decent investment.
            Mind you, that’s what I’ve told her about the vinyl collection – can’t bear to break the bad news ?

  3. The Shakespeare pub in London’s Stoke Newington used to have a great jukebox. Go to tunes were The Specials, The Beat, Madness, Booker T & The MGs and Blondie (I don’t really need to mention the tunes do I? Pick a single by them and it will sound great!!). Oh and random soul tunes like Timmy Thomas’ Why Can’t We Live Together.

    My favourite jukebox tune of all time though was Stiff Little Finger’s Nobody’s Hero. Always cut through the gloom in the pub.

  4. Any golden era Chuck Berry. I think of him as the quintessential jukebox artist
    Johnny B Goode
    Roll Over Beethoven
    Sweet Little Sixteen
    Maybellene
    Brown Eyed Handsome Man

    etc etc

    The last artist I associate with jukeboxes was the video jukebox in the pub I went to lots as a student, had a ton of Eliminator era hits

  5. I have had a hankering for a Wurlitzer for years. Proper jealous you have a jukebox. Maybe one day!!
    From my earlier years of going into pubs with Jukeboxes a big fave were the Creedence Clearwater Revival singles particularly Have you ever seen the rain and Looking out my back door. The later Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Enjoy.

  8. I’d go for David Sylvian’s ‘There’s a Light that Enters Houses with No Other House in Sight’.

    david sylvian there’s a light that enters houses with no other house in sight

  9. Many, many years ago I dreamed that for my 40th birthday I would get a Wurlitzer Bubble Jukebox. Sadly, as that day approached I realised a fully-operational one would be far too costly and then those ipod things came along. However, that did not stop me from coming up with a selection:

    Peggy Lee – Is That All There Is?
    The Flamingoes – I Only Have Eyes For You
    Link Wray – Ace Of Spades
    Smokey Robinson – Shop Around
    Thin Lizzy – Whiskey In The Jar
    Monotones – Who Wrote The Book Of Love?
    John Kongos – He’s Gonna Step On You Again
    The Monkees – Pleasant Valley Sunday
    Bo Diddley – Who Do You Love?
    Big Bopper – Chantilly Lace
    Elvis Presley – Devil In Disguise
    Sly & The Family Stone – Family Affair
    The Four Tops – Reach Out, I’ll Be There
    Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – The Night
    Magazine – Song From Under The Floorboards
    Rose Of Avalanche – L.A. Rain
    OMD – Souvenir
    Rickie Lee Jones – Chuck, ‘E’s In Love
    Pigbag – Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag
    Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
    New Order- Temptation
    Dream Academy – Life In A Northern Town
    Roy Orbison – In Dreams
    Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)
    Martha & The Muffins – Echo Beach
    Brecker Brothers – East River
    Furniture – Brilliant Mind
    A-Ha – Take On Me
    China Crisis – Christian
    Haircut 100 – Favourite Shirt
    Flock Of Seagulls – I Ran
    The Specials AKA – Gangsters
    Jesus & Mary Chain – Just Like Honey
    B52s – Rock Lobster
    Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday
    The Mighty Wah! – The Story Of The Blues
    The Icicle Works – Love Is A Wonderful Colour
    Altered Images – Don’t Talk To Me About Love
    The House Of Love – Shine On
    UB40 – Food For Thought
    The Jam – Going Underground
    The The – This Is The Day
    Black – Wonderful Life
    The Stranglers – Nice ‘n’ Sleazy
    Tears For Fears – Mad World
    Nick Cave – In The Ghetto
    Ministry – Jesus Built My Hotrod
    The Bangles – Going Down To Liverpool
    Prince – Kiss
    Aztec Camera – Oblivious
    Kim Carnes – Bette Davis Eyes
    The Cure – A Forest
    Fun Boy Three – Our Lips Are Sealed
    U2 – Desire
    Aphex Twin – Come To Daddy
    Be Bop Deluxe – Maid In Heaven
    Small Faces – Tin Soldier
    It’s Immaterial – Driving Away From Home
    The Smiths – Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
    The Chantays – Pipeline

    …and 40 more!

    There are, of course, many – including some of the above – where the b-side is great too.

    No, I am not obsessed with/about “my” jukebox.

    • A fab list.

      I’d go with the original Katrina and The Waves of Going Down to Liverpool.

      If Prince is called for, and surely he is, I’d go with Little Red Corvette rather than Kiss.

      And while we’re at it:

      Martika – Toy Soldiers
      Teardrop Explodes – Reward
      Rainbow – Can’t Happen Here
      Somebody to Love – In Tua Nua
      Radar Love – Golden Earring

      Would be a good mix of 1980s jukebox classics.

  10. 100 slots isn’t much so you want to maximise what you have

    I’d look for double A sides I don’t know if such a disc exists but Great Balls of Fire b/w Whole Lotta Shakin’ for example

    You really want things that pump. My two favourite songs are probably Strawberry Fields and Born to Run but I’d only put the Bruce song on a jukebox. Quiet or slow songs are just no good but you don’t want essentially the same song 200 times so I’d scour the decades and as well as CCR I’d put on Tainted Love or something like that.

    Someone mentioned ZZ Top, La Grange! What a brilliant jukebox song!

    Have fun picking tunes it sounds like a great project

  11. Also get a couple of rousing gospel records in there, for your Sunday mornings.
    I say that because as a kid there was a strange café near where we lived, run by some variety of Christian congregation, where they had an all religious jukebox, and those tunes sounded ace through it! (It helped that they had some really good gospel records in it, not those prim white hymns or Salvation Army racket)

  12. The Commercial, just off the Barbican in Plymouth, used to have Led Zeppelin singles on board….

    The most-played on the Student Union jukebox when I were a spotty undergrad was Freebird – 8 minutes plus or thereabouts of plangent singalong followed by a couple of climactic minutes of frenetic head-banging air-guitar and all for 5p.

  20. Portsmouth, by Mike Oldfield. The med school saturday haunt was the now demolished Royal George in Royal Street, opposite St Thomas’ Hospital. There was a place on the floor nearby that, if you jumped, jogged the record, making for early approximations of 12″ remixes, lasting for 15 minutes or so, if Eric, the landlord didn’t bar you for the practice. Barring lasted a week until you went in the next week and apologised, buying him a barley wine.

  21. The Who are ideal jukebox fodder.

    I Can’t Explain.
    Anyway Anyhow Anywhere.
    My Generation.
    Substitute.
    I’m a Boy.
    Happy Jack.
    Pictures of Lily.
    I Can See For Miles.
    Magic Bus.
    Pinball Wizard.
    The Seeker.
    Won’t Get Fooled Again.
    5:15.

    I’d have all of those on MY Wurlitzer..

  22. “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” – The Shangri-Las
    “That’s the Way God Planned It” – Billy Preston
    Something by Barry White
    “On the Road Again” – Canned Heat
    “Do You Love Me?” – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
    “I’m the Urban Spaceman/Canyons of your Mind” – The Bonzos
    “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” – LCD Soundsystem

    etc.

  24. The last proper (45s, not CDs) jukebox I remember in London was in a pub called The Three Compasses in Holborn.

    It used to be on the corner of a huge block which was some kind of administrative centre for the Services, but in about 2002 it was incorporated into the rest of the building as if it had never existed. There’s absolutely no trace of it now.

    I mention all this because, in about 1988, among a heap of not so great tunes, it still had a copy of ‘Point Me At The Sky’ by The Pink Floyd…..which was great.
    We used to play it over and over again, musing on the fact that we were probably sitting in the easiest and most obvious place in London to place a bomb.

  26. A couple of jukebox stories from yesteryear.

    Back in the 60s, one play on a jukebox typically cost sixpence (2½p) or you got three plays for a shilling (5p).

    There was a great jukebox in my local Sheffield pub and to ensure we got maximum value for money we would nearly always pick Hey Jude (7:11), Richard Harris – McArthur Park (7:21) and The Nice – America (6:18) all of which were big hits in 1968.

    So we monopolised the jukebox for 20 mins for just a shilling, much to the other punters annoyance.

    A year later the same jukebox had the single of Led Zep’s Whole Lotta Love and thereby hangs another tale.

    You may or may not know that in order to maintain their image as a serious albums band Zeppelin had a strict “no singles” policy in the UK*.

    A very limited number of promo copies of 7″ singles of Communication Breakdown, Whole Lotta Love and Immigration Song were produced for radio stations etc but they were never sold over the counter.

    Consequently those UK LZ singles sell for huge amounts today, with the latest Record Collector price guide valuing them at between £600 – £700 each.

    Even back in the 60s we knew the rarity of those UK LZ singles and they were changing hands for £15 – £20 within months. So when I saw Whole Lotta Love on the Sheffield pub jukebox I tried to pull a fast one by approaching the landlord and offering to buy it for a fiver (this was at a time when singles cost 6/8d [33p] or three for a quid).

    He seemed mildly interested in the offer, but said he couldn’t open the machine himself and told me to come back on Tuesday “when the jukebox bloke comes in to collect the money”.

    Sadly, I had to leave Sheffield the next day, so never got back to the pub for a few months by which time the records had been changed. But to this day I often wince when I think how that single slipped through my hands.

    *(LZ singles were released in the US, Australia and elsewhere and have very little value).

    • I always found it rather terrifying to be standing in front of the jukebox in the local cafe, packed with my fellow schoolmates, trying to make up my mind what to choose for my hard-earned bob. I was always fearful that someone else’s previously selected naff choice would suddenly come blaring out and the assembled oiks would mistakenly believe it was my choice and, as a result, whatever cred I had accumulated would evaporate instantly.
      On the other hand, provided your mates were in on the joke, you could pick some execrable songs to torture the punters. Among the favourites were ‘Back Home’ by the England World Cup Squad (quite what that was doing on a jukebox in Scotland baffled me); ‘Don’t Worry Kyoko (your Mummy’s only looking for her hand in the snow) – B side of ‘Cold Turkey’ which featured Yoko at her shrieking best; ‘It’s only Make Believe’ by Conway Twitty – a glutinous kitsch masterpiece which had the added bonus of inspiring some of the dimmer girls to sing along to their boyfriends which only added to the gaiety of the nation.
      My point being that, for that proper jukebox effect, you’re going to have to put a couple of screamingly awful songs on there that you have to suffer through before the good stuff comes on again.

      • Great stuff Ian.

        Another jukebox favourite was Jigsaw Puzzle Blues the B-Side of Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross.

        It always got people asking questions – and in a good way, they mostly liked it. It features Danny Kirwan on guitar not Peter Green and I think it is one of the best things he ever did with the Mac.

        The barmaid could never remember the title and said it reminded her of The Stripper and she’d call out “‘ere lads, put that Stripper record on for me”

    • Je T’Aime was a good one for annoying the clientele. I recall putting that on in some rough pub in Cardiff and a pool player asking ‘who the fuck put that on?’. We said nothing. A friend of mine also quite liked Touch Me by Samantha Fox and would select it on a Friday night, which was also not too popular in a pub for metal rockers.

      At university in Newcastle in the late eighties the single of Whole Lotta Love was often played. Something special about hearing that blasting out in a bar. I also found Voodoo Chile (slight return) sounded particularly impressive and thrilling when it was chosen in a student pub in Oxford I used to frequent (Temple Bar I think it was). It was always exciting to find a jukebox loaded with less obvious material too. Not the usual singles for example.

  28. Jethro Tull:
    A: Living int the Past
    B: Driving Song
    Not a Tull fan in general…but that’s one of my favourite singles from my childhood.
    Both sides equally good.

  32. I think you should try to replicate the 80s and 90s pub experience by buying a CD jukebox, filling it with Now! and Soft Metal compilations and the playing “Paradise City” on repeat.

  33. The trick with jukeboxes as I recall from college was to put good b sides on. From memory, and based on the Bracknell College jukebox, you should have:

    U2 – Pride/MLK
    The Jam – Strange Town Butterfly Collector
    The Smiths – This Charming Man/Jeane

  34. Let’s Go by The Routers
    Jenny Take A Ride by Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
    25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago
    Spirit In The Sky by Norman Greenbaum

    Plus, as a general rule, any 45 on London American or Stateside.

  35. (It might have been fun to restrict nominations to one each.)

    In 1977-8 this used to come up on the college bar jukebox very regularly:

    And it has stayed with me, just hearing it takes me back into the fug of John Smiths and cigarette smoke.

    Hmmm, I’ve never explored the band’s output in any greater depth though, perhaps I should.

  40. Jukeboxes were made for big- production songs like this, even a bit wall-of-sound on the drum kit (see also Something In The Air and You Don’t have To Say You Love me). You lucky bugger @Neil Dyson.

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