Keeping the jukes jumping

They are to the music industry what unicorns are to reality:  
magical, mythical beasts.  But spinning those tunes on vinyl, 
theyre the life of the party.
By Dean Kuipers, Special to The Times
August 10, 2006

At your service Vinyl fetish

Not everyone shares the reverence.  Muller has repaired, reconditioned and rented jukeboxes from his house for 35 years.  Muller, who is 61, runs an outfit called Jukeboxes Unlimited in Granada Hills (and its offshoot, Jukeboxes for Rent, which rents to film and TV studios and for events). He is the go-to jukebox guy on the Westside when your classic '50s Seeburg or Wurlitzer has a jammed record arm.

"The kids don't know what a 45 or a single is. They don't know what vinyl is," Muller says. "For me, it's all about the 45's.  The vinyl.  The feel.  That's where the emotion is.  You put on a CD jukebox and you have thousands of titles. You put on a vinyl jukebox and you've got 100 to 200 titles ... and that's special.  Each record is hand-picked.  It's an art."

Everybody, in fact, who has a jukebox seems to have strong opinions on jukeboxes. Perry, who has produced albums for artists from Streisand to Ringo Starr to Carly Simon to the Pointer Sisters, and continues today to have huge hits with albums of standards by Rod Stewart, stocking the jukebox is an art unto itself.

"I dare you to name one person who doesn't find it fun to stand around the jukebox and be part of programming whatever music they want to hear," he says.

"The CD jukeboxes have hundreds and thousands of selections, and it leaves too much to someone else's potential bad taste," he says with a smile.