The Juke Box at Frankie's Tiki Room, Las Vegas.

At some point during Covid last year, I was looking back at some photos I took on my tiki trips, and happened upon these pix of the CD's in the juke box at Frankie's Tiki Room in Las Vegas back during my April 2009 visit. I thought it might be fun (or interesting) to highlight these photos here for everyone, as there is some great surf, exotica, garage rock, swing, psychobilly, etc., etc. featured within.

If you have any updated photos of how the juke box presents itself today (or in the past) please feel free to feature them here too.

One of the great jukeboxes along with the NOHO Tonga Hut, Otto's Shrunken Head had a great one, The V Room in Long Beach has a good one, though not a Tiki Bar, now I am trying to remember who else has a good Juke?

[ Edited by Atomic Tiki Punk on 2022-04-04 00:15:29 ]

Hot damn that’s a cool collection. I definitely didn’t expect to see Black Monk Time in there, i love that record. Now to google all the ones i don’t know…

Right? I mean, that's how it all started with me too. I had to google and find out more about the ones I didn't know. BTW: I was at Frankie's again last week (after being away for almost 14 years) and there have been some changes to the jukebox that will be interesting for some of us to note. I'll post Pics Soon. Hello!

Frankie's get it, where (too many) others don't. A tiki bar doesn't have to play Exotica exclusively, but the music there shouldn't be the same as you can hear in any old bar or club. It has to be Different to support the escapism element.

The cool thing about jukeboxes is it's interactive in that the customers have a say in what's being played. Too bad they're pretty much extinct.

When I first visited the Tonga Hut in North Hollywood, early-to-mid ‘90s, they still had their vintage juke playing vinyl 45s! With that arm that would pick the record up, drop it on the turntable. Stuff like “The Girl From Ipanema.” Wish they still had it, but man, those records must have been a real scratch-fest after all those years.

Image Missing: https://tikicentral.com/resize.php/uploads/1386/644d5d00154c8.jpg?w=1280&h=1280&fit=max&sharp=5&s=4c940917154a9d3c13f5244ef059c9d8Image Missing: https://tikicentral.com/resize.php/uploads/1386/644d5d005495a.jpg?w=1280&h=1280&fit=max&sharp=5&s=557cee31b4afb693c323bedc6ecebf02Image Missing: https://tikicentral.com/resize.php/uploads/1386/644d5d00a8543.jpg?w=1280&h=1280&fit=max&sharp=5&s=04ef24306e3350277235520888f28099Image Missing: https://tikicentral.com/resize.php/uploads/1386/644d5d01252bd.jpg?w=1280&h=1280&fit=max&sharp=5&s=1a72874d16d9664248aa2c4d3ccd56c6Image Missing: https://tikicentral.com/resize.php/uploads/1386/644d5d012d5e8.jpg?w=1280&h=1280&fit=max&sharp=5&s=c758caa1d1eb9c4577aad9df592a395b

Thanks, dude!

Some new ones to me, e.g. that "Big Daddy's Bottomless Topless" album. Cannot find anything about it on the internets. ( Well, I got other hits for that name, if ya know what I mean, but nothing about an album)

I believe that one was Las Vegas Grind Volume 6. Took me a while to decipher that one too.

For those of you on Spotify (I'll admit I only joined earlier this month)...I've gone and lovingly (read: obsessively) created a playlist that replicates, as much as possible, the jukebox at Frankie's as of last March 2023 (when I was last there). Interestingly enough, but perhaps not very surprisingly, there is quite a bit of content in the Frankie's jukebox that Spotify lacks.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3tzRVdFpbd6WSgW4g1UaZA

[ Edited by Slacks Ferret on 2023-10-21 08:12:01 ]

Soooo….does anybody have a copy of the Martini Kings - Cocktail for Two CD they’d be willing to sell? Please PM me if you do. I already own a digital copy thanks to Bandcamp, but I’d love a physical copy.