Seeburg V-200 Jukebox

Hello, Laptop Sessions fans! I thought it would be fun to post about our 1955 Seeburg V-200 jukebox that we got about a year ago. We’ve always wanted one and I’ve kept an eye out at fifties themed diners and such over the years. I went to a jukebox restoration company nearby a bunch of years ago, looking for options. But I didn’t realize how expensive these things were! Much like any other collectible, you can get less expensive versions that are still nice but there’s always one or two models that rise above the rest.

Take baseball cards, for instance. Everyone knows the Honus Wagner card that’s worth millions. Sure, you might have some good baseball cards but chance are you’ll never have the BEST one. Certain model years of cars (you can have a Corvette but likely ain’t gonna get a ‘55) and guitars (‘58 Les Paul, anyone?) follow the same trend.

So when it came to owning a jukebox, I was a bit disappointed to find out that the ones I thought I wanted were impractical (those Wurlitzer ones with the bubble lights? Most are from the 40s and only play 78 rpm records) or way too much money (the Seeburg V-200).

The owner of the jukebox repair shop told me of a jukebox he completely restored and that is was the most desirable Seeburg model ever made: the V200. He had the whole thing rebuilt from the ground-up. It cost the owner a ton of money. The best part? It was located right in my hometown, in a 50’s diner that I didn’t even know existed!

So, we went searching for it right away. It was BEAUTIFUL. I’d never seen a 200-play version before (this was the first model to ever have 100 records or 200 selections) and the features were out of sight. The rotating wheel to flip between banks of songs was so cool to look at and use.

We went to that diner almost weekly from there out, playing the jukebox every time. But, as many restaurants do, it went out of business. We didn’t know it was going out of business because there was a fire in an adjacent restaurant that forced the 50’s diner to close for a while. But it never opened back up again!

Out of desperation, I wrote a note to the owner and slipped it under the door of the vacant restaurant. I never heard back.

Fast-forward a few years to when I was about to complete graduate school and my MBA. I got cards from relatives with some money. While writing thank you notes, my default line was, “I’ll put it in the jukebox fund!” I never thought I’d actually pull the trigger and get one!

That night, while writing the thank you notes, I decided to look on eBay foe jukeboxes. I couldn’t believe it- there it was. THE Seeburg V-200 from the 50’s diner! It was still nearby and someone wanted a lot of money for it. Well, to cut to the chase, we worked out a deal and my friend and I stupidly went by ourselves to pick the 400 lb machine up. Thankfully we recruited a couple more guys to help us get it in the house where it will live forevermore.

This jukebox sounds amazing- the tube amp is powerful and high-fi. The machine has its quirks but I’ve gotten pretty good at cleaning, servicing and performing minor fixes. I can only hope it continues to provide our family and friends with years of good times. I hope you enjoy the photos of this beautiful beast below and thanks for reading!!

“She’s Got Rhythm” (The Beach Boys cover)

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions! It’s great to be back doing these songs again. I have so many that I want to record and they’ve been mostly successful so far. I’m even going back and remastering some of my old videos. My thought is this: I may lose the views that I had on the video before, but is anyone actually hanging around to watch these videos that look like they were recorded in the dark and inside an air conditioner? So, cleaning them up has been fairly easy to do and it seems to breathe some new life into them.

But today I bring you a new video in “She’s Got Rhythm”. This is the lead track off of the 1978 album, “M.I.U. Album”. This is one of the Beach Boys’ most panned albums, and for good reason. It’s so disjointed. Of course the songs aren’t bad (at least, in my opinion), but you could tell that Brian was fading away from his brief resurgence during the 15 Big Ones and Love You albums of the previous two years. The other members had a chance to add songs, but you didn’t get much input from Carl or Dennis on this one- you’d have to wait till 1979’s “L.A. (Light Album)”to hear more written by them. However, Dennis does get the lead on probably my favorite track on the album, “My Diane”. I don’t think I should cover that one, though- seems like it’s too personal and written for a very specific person for me to jump in.

So, I chose “She’s Got Rhythm” in keeping with one of the goals of the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog. This song is done in a slightly disco style and would probably turn some people off, especially four decades later. So, I thought I’d give it the full acoustic treatment…but still keep the falsetto because, why not? I’d be really interested to hear from folks to see if this song translated well to acoustic guitar and vocals. It just popped into my head one day while playing some songs on piano with my daughter and I knew the chords before I even started playing. And you can tell Brian wasn’t in command of the session for the original track because it’s in the key of D. If he was there, you know this would be in C#…

I hope you enjoy today’s Laptop Sessions cover song video. I have a couple more Beach Boys songs in the can that I’ll debut over the next few weeks. It won’t be easy gaining fans back after letting the site go dormant for so long, but it’s been fun igniting this passion once again! Stay tuned to my YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/jimfusco – I’m uploading new and newly-remastered videos all the time!

The Leap Year Show 2020 – Free Internet Radio Show

Click HERE to visit WCJM.com and listen to the show for free!

The 20th anniversary of The Leap Year Show with Jim Fusco is here and so is the Leap Year Show 2020! The Jammin’ with Jim free internet radio program debuted in 200 on February 29th with a promise to record a show every four years on the leap day. After forgetting to do a show in 2004, the tradition officially continued in 2008 with additional shows each leap day in 2012, 2016 and now 2020.

This year’s theme is the Top 25 Songs that Jim discovered over the past four years. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the songs came out in the last four years- some songs are older but Jim just learned about them in the time since the last Leap Year Show!

The show features songs from Goo Goo Dolls, Weezer, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, ELO, Barenaked Ladies, Jake Shears and many more. Yes, the countdown may be arbitrary, but it’s a fun way to hear some great songs. We’d love to see what everyone thinks of the countdown and if you would have ranked the songs in a different order!

Brand-New Music from Jim Fusco!

Today, Jim Fusco released his first new, original song in over five years! The track is titled “You Don’t Know Me” and will be featured on an upcoming album. For now, the song is available to listen to on SoundCloud for a limited time.

The song is written by Jim Fusco and all of the instruments and vocals are provided by him, as well, using his new home studio in Wallingford, CT. Please leave your comments!

Personnel:

Jim Fusco: all instruments and vocals

Instruments: