What Are Your Jukebox Staples?

noah | October 24, 2008 6:15 am

Wednesday night I spent $16 on jukeboxes at two establishments in New York City. Sixteen dollars! That could buy, I don’t know, three pints of ice cream at the bodega down the block. But I felt like the investment was worth it, particularly at the second bar I visited, where six Washingtons allowed me to blare 19 songs throughout the bar and my friend and I were pretty much the only customers left in the place. Not that other patrons would have stopped me from playing the Monkees’ “Valleri” and the Raincoats’ “In Love”*; after all, the huge catalogs of the Internet-jukebox era have made it a lot easier to impose your tastes on others, even if doing so costs you an extra credit per song. So this weekend, I wonder: What songs will you always play on a jukebox if you have some unused dollar bills rustling around your wallet? Five songs that I have no problem dropping 25 to 100 cents on after the jump.

The Afghan Whigs, “Miles Iz Ded”

A personal drinking staple. (“Now You Know,” from Gentlemen, also works in a pinch, although I’d avoid it if you’re throwing back beverages while feeling bad about anything related to your personal life.)

Janet Jackson, “Miss You Much”

Note: It sounded quite complementary with this Fall Out Boy song Wednesday night.

Pulp, “Monday Morning”

“Why live in the world, when you can live in your head” is a lyric that really anticipated the “everything customized just for you” age, isn’t it?

TV On The Radio, “Golden Age”

The bigger the speakers, the better the sound.

The Mo-Dettes, “White Mice”

It’s not on too many jukeboxes–New York’s Hi-Fi has it thanks to its digitizing a few key editions of Rhino’s D.I.Y. series–but its ghostly “ooh”s and “ahh”s” sound even better underneath the din of inebriated patrons.

* Yeah, I wrote down all the songs that I picked. It’s a habit I picked up this year after a few nights of solo drinking. What.