I’m Fixing to Put a Nickel in the Juke Box

(Editor’s Note: Ted Dunagan is on Sabbatical from writing his column. For the next few weeks, The Monticello News will feature some columns that ran previously.)

I’m fixing to put a nickel in the juke box.

That’s all it took to hear a hot tune in 1960. You didn’t need a boom box, a DVD player, a portable CD player, Ipod, ITunes, a CD Shower Companion, or even a cell phone to hear some cool music.

I would just drop that coin into the slot and hear the melodic sounds of it as it dinged and clicked its way through the inside of the big Wurlitzer.

When it hit its target an automated arm would magically rise up over a rack of 45 records, grasp the one corresponding with the number I had punched on the keyboard, lay it on the table and drop the needle into the grooves.

I like B-12 because it was Sonny James playing the number one hit, Young Love.

There was another version of the same song, which the girls liked better because it was sung by the handsome film star, Tab Hunter. I figured some movie mogul had come up with that name, and that his read name was probably something like Chester Ledbetter. Anyway, I like Sonny’s version better and it was my nickel.

You got a bonus if you put a quarter into the big fat music machine. It would give you 6 plays instead of 5. A quarter was a considerable amount of money back then, but it was worth it to have the girls gather around and squeal play this or play that while I hovered over the curved glass.

Carol Ann wanted to hear Pat Boone sing Love Letters in the Sand, Kathleen wanted me to play Devil or Angel, Marha Jean was asking for Cherry Pie by Skip and Flip, and somewhere off in the background I could hear my friend Hardy telling me to play Alley Oop by the Hollywood Argyles.

Music changes with the generations, but young love endures through the ages.

I have to go now because this guy on TV is hawking songs from the fifties and sixties, and I’m fixing to write that 800 number down.