Great Jukebox memories from days gone by

I shared this with my BL family as well. Some great memories here. Enjoy!

http://www.1959bhsmustangs.com/VideoJukebox.htm

This is a great site! Thanks for the address.

I was working at a small amusement park in my early 20's (late 1980's-early 1990's). This park, although possessing less than 20 rides and attractions, did have enough big money investors that they would regularly offer shows that had some pretty big names, both past and present. Marty Stuart, The Beach Boys, Otis Day and the Knights, The Everly Brothers, Dion, Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine, etc. I remember working stage security for The Everly Brothers/Dion concert. Of course, they were a lot older than they are in the Bye-Bye Love video on this website, but they could still sing their butts off. I had a chuckle at the show they presented. Don Everly is a guitar god who can play pretty much anything he wants on a guitar (he graciously showed me the fingering for Bye-Bye Love, but I am not, nor will I ever be, able to play it like him). They gave Phil a guitar, too, but unbeknownst to the audience (I and anyone at the side of the stage could see it, though), they didn't plug in his guitar to the sound system.

While you folks can and (and likely will) wax poetic about the music in those Jukeboxes, I've always been impressed by the magnificent boxes themselves. The best of them were mechanical, electronic, engineering and artistic marvels. The busiest of them required weekly attention to remove the coins, appease the mechanical and electronic gremlins, and to remove the old disks in favor of the latest and the greatest.

I would have one in my living room except that I would really prefer to stay married.

I've always wanted one of the old Wurlitzer Jukeboxes

http://www.gibson.com/Files/AllAccess/images/classic-wurly.jpg

What's with that? Priorities, man, priorities!

Some marvellous memories, I remember our priorities for a Friday Night pub were: good juke box, good twiddly football table and good bar billiards table and decent beer.
The night that Yellow Submarine appeared on the jukebox in The Southwestern was memorable, by the end of the night everyone was singing "We all live in a effing great machine at the top of our drunken voices, and the landlord removed it from the juke box as he was worried about a public order offence.
Two of my favourites-The Wanderer and Leader of the Pack have video clips-what disappointments- Dion looking uncomfortable and barely moving in a suit performing in front of a room of stuffed shirt bozos, and the twat on the tiny little Honda pretending to be leader of the pack ruining the whole thing-couldn't even have a Harley.
Still I'll have a few more trips down memory lane even though it is very Stateside.

There is still a jukebox in a Long John Silvers/ A and W about 25 miles from where I live. it is a modern replica that plays CDs. the CDs are oldies from the 50s and 60s, and you don't have to feed it money, just make selections and it will play them for free. The down side to this is that songs will often be interrupted by the PA announcing that an order is ready.

Arcane, that's pretty interesting. Good for you. I would imagine that was an exciting time for you to meet those artists. I played guitar for years and I'm still learning.

Remember these?

http://fc06.deviantart.net/images3/i/2004/119/8/b/Canada___diner___jukebox_01.jpg

Bendover, I do remember those. We used to have them at the local Country Kitchen when I was young. I remember that my mom and step-father would take me and my little brother out to eat and I would always be playing with that thing. And, of course, I would be awaiting my Country Boy coin so I could get some toy out of the machine. I never had the patience to save them up for the bigger stuff.

I met a lot of the Rock & Roll stars of yesteryear. The absolute nicest guy of them all was the last one you would suspect. Tiny Tim would do absolutely anything for you. I stood guard over him while he signed autograph after autograph. He always had a kind word for each and every person in line and he didn't stop until the last person was through the line, no matter if that meant signing a thousand pictures and books. Spencer Davis (of The Spencer Davis Group), Mike Pinera (of Iron Butterfly), and Jerry Corbettta (of Sugarloaf) sang Happy Birthday to me (in 3 part harmony) and bought me breakfast while I was taking them to their flight in Sioux Falls. Jim Pash (of the Surfaris) was a pretty good guy who was only too happy to show someone how to play Wipeout on the guitar.

There was one time that I was told by the promoter to stand at one end of the autograph tables and keep the fans back from behind the tables unless the stars wanted someone to get next to them. I hadn't really watched the show while I was doing stage duty, so I didn't get to see a lot of the performers while they were on stage. I did remember seeing Mitch Ryder perform Devil with the Blue Dress On, so that was kind of cool. This was for the Rock & Roll Reunion tour hosted by Donnie Brooks (Mission Bell). Most of the acts were of the type that had a big name (Iron Butterfly, The Supremes, Gary Lewis & The Playboys), so those concerts gathered a lot of fans. There was a huge crowd waiting for autographs and Mitch Ryder, Mary Wilson, and Mike Pinera were all seated and waiting for the rush to begin. Up comes this little geeky fellow who looked like he should have a pocket protector filled with pencils and slide rules. He started to go behind the table when I held up my hand and said in a pleasant but authoritative voice, "I'm sorry, sir, but only the performers are allowed behind the table." He looked indignant and said in a squeaky voice while waving his arms, "But I'm Gary Lewis!" Mitch Ryder fell off his chair because he was laughing so hard.

Tom