Songfacts®:

• This song borrows from the theme to the '50s television show Peter Gunn, which was a hit for Duane Eddy.
• This frantic song doesn't make a lot of sense, and it's not supposed to. Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas said of it: "I remember people saying this track's ugly, I think it's got a great personality. It's a pretty crazy song, and is meant to be a bit schizophrenic."
• The video was directed by Michael Palmieri and features comedian David Cross as an inept DJ at a radio station in New York City who calls the band "Stroke" and introduces the song as "Juicy Juice." The video is pretty wild, with lots of kissing, a bit of vomiting, and some scenes with an elderly woman and a dog. When MTV balked at playing it, Palmieri changed the entire course of the video to make it less sexual. After the video was released, Palmieri complained about MTV's censorship and took his name off the video that was shown on television.
• In a 2006 Clash interview, Julian remembered people's early reactions to the song: "The first people I played 'Juicebox' to thought I was joking... It was still on tour. I was like, 'Yeah, what do you think?' Nick [Valensi, guitarist] was like, 'Alright, you're insane.' I just liked the way the notes sounded. It was weird and I thought it might sound a little ugly to some people, especially the first riff."
• The band ran into some trouble when the song sounded a little too much like a particular video game from the '80s. Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti told NME in 2008: "We had to clear it with a bunch of people because it reminded too many people of Spy Hunter. I thought that was funny. I still think it's a pretty good song regardless of its similarities to a video game."
• In their rush to release the single, BMG accidentally send the wrong song to Australia's alt-music station Triple J. Listeners thought they were hearing "Juicebox," but it was really an unnamed album track. Ultimately, the actual single peaked at #44 in Australia.
• "Juicebox," which doesn't appear in the lyric, wasn't the original title - it was originally called "Dracula's Lunch." Julian Casablancas explained to Rolling Stone Australia: "It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to blood-suckers, so when the image of people as juiceboxes of blood came into the picture, it stuck."
• This was used on season 2, episode 7 of the British sitcom Gavin & Stacey.
• The Strokes performed this on Saturday Night Live on January 21, 2006.
• "Juicebox" was the lead single to the third Strokes album, First Impressions Of Earth, released in 2005. The band had a lot of fans around New York City, where they formed, but their stronghold was the UK, where their songs regularly charted and this one reached #5. In contrast, they barely dented the American chart, reaching #108 with their 2001 song "Last Nite," and #98 with "Juicebox," which is their highest charting song in the US.
• The music video alludes to the band's British acclaim, with the DJ asking, "You guys are huge in Europe. Are you hoping some of that success translates back here in the States?"
  
  This was the kind of question they answered repeatedly after releasing their debut album, Is This It, in 2001. The UK press fawned all over it, but it didn't get much attention in the US. The band got diminishing returns as the years went by, and after their 2013 album Comedown Machine failed to move the needle, they took a hiatus that lasted until 2020. They returned with a more mature sound and recognition as flag-bearers of early 2000s rock and roll.