Monthly Archives: December 2008

“Feliz Navidad” (Jose Feliciano Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

And the award for most spirited contribution to a Laptop Session goes to…

Jim Fusco!

Yes, that’s right, for my FINAL video of 2008, I called in the big guns (plural) — not only Jim, but also Dana.  The video that resulted is a one take, gather ’round the ol’ laptop spontaneously kind of video.  At its core, this is what the Laptop Sessions are all about — recording a performance as if you were just sitting around the house with us.  Break out a guitar, tune it, and start strumming.  That’s what we do here.  And that’s what we’ll continue to do in 2009!

For tonight, I chose “Feliz Navidad” in honor of the quickly approaching new year.  Jose Feliciano recorded this song in 1970 and when it was released on CD in 2001 it quickly became one of the most played and recorded Christmas songs, according to ASCAP.  Now, it has been added to the massive “session-a-day” catalog at the Laptop Sessions music blog, soon to be 366 music videos strong from this year alone!

Tonight was a lot of fun.  Not only did I get to go to my English department Christmas party, but I also got there on time and without getting lost, thanks to the GPS that Jim and Mike got me for Christmas!  I’ve been saying for years that I don’t really need one, that it wouldn’t get used, and epecially with the iPhone, that a GPS seems unnecessary.  Well, not so.  This was extremely easy to use and it was more fun than it should have been to drive to Hamden and back.  Anyone who knows me will understand how great this is, as it combines my dorkiness with technology AND my dorkiness for loving to drive places!

Anyway, the party was extremely relaxing and fun (I am grateful for an amazing department of people to work with), and when I got home, I went out for some late night Burger King and Jim and I kicked back to watch some YouTube Videos.  First, he showed me the little kid screaming as he opened his Nintendo 64.  “NINTENDO SIXTY-FOOOOOUUUUUURRRRR!!.”  So funny.  (YouTube search: kid opening nintendo 64)

Then, I showed him a video I just came across today.  It’s Jeff Tweedy, front man for Wilco, playing an acoustic show and talking to the crowd in between songs.  About midway into the video, he explains “the game” to the crowd.  Essentially, the game is to name a band — Three Dog Night, for instance — and then to consider the bowel movement that might have inspired the band name.  There are so many good ones!  Just think — Green Day, the Rolling Stones, String Cheese Incident, etc…  The list goes on.  (YouTube search: Jeff Tweedy banter and the game)

When we were done and Dana had arrived, we were all fighting unconsciousness.  At least I was.  And I think Jim a bit too.  So, Jim suggested I record my video before we went our separate ways (tangent:  anyone remember that American Dad episode with screaming “Debbie and I went our separate WAAAYS!).  Even I didn’t need more than a quick glance at the chord sheet for this song before I joined them in the other room to record what is probably one of the most fun sessions I’ve done.  It won’t win any awards, but I hope you enjoy the energy and the simplicity of the message.

Truly, I wish you a happy new year and the best of happiness, health, and success in 2009.  Thank you for all your support, for watching our videos, and I hope you’ll continue to come back next year.  With any luck, our numbers will continue to grow!

2008 was a great year for music; there were lots of great albums.  There were also disappointments, but those were weighed out by the good songs and albums that were released.  Personally, it was a year of up and downs for me.  Musically, I found one of my new favorite bands, Wilco.  In other aspects, I’m certainly hopeful that 2009 will be a better year — that I will catch up with my grading and do well on my BEST portfolio, that I will record my album with Jim (hint, hint, nudge, nudge 🙂 ), and that I will deal with some personal issues that need to be dealt with, oh, I don’t know… months ago!

See you next year!!

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“White Christmas” (Irving Berlin Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

I want to welcome you to the ultimate Thumpin’ Thursday edition – the Christmas edition!

Today I bring you an acoustic cover of Irving Berlin’s classic song “White Christmas”.  It’s a song we all know and love.  I won’t get mad if you sing along.

I had a great Christmas – I got to spend it with my family all day.  We talked, ate, opened presents, gave each other presents, and had an overall wonderful time.  Sherry & I then came home and exchanged the nights’ worth of Hanukkah gifts.  She loves her new digital photo frame too!

Tomorrow Sherry & I are going on vacation to a resort in NY.  We will be gone until Tuesday.  Because of this, I will have a post “auto-publish” on Sunday.  But if you just can’t wait, look me up on Youtube to see a preview of Sunday’s song.

I hope your Christmas was wonderful, and I hope you have nothing to bring back tomorrow. 

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and original music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up. We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session. We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future. But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

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“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” (Darlene Love Christmas Song Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Okay, this one was for fun, and I implore you- just for fun!  I was planning on doing this one all day.  I needed one more Christmas song before the big day and I’ve always enjoyed singing this one.  For the most part, I can sing the whole song without going into falsetto.  Of course, I usually have to project (a nicer word for scream) when I sing this song, so it was nicer to be in a quiet environment.

This was a LANDMARK day for the Laptop Sessions- we reached our highest view total yet for one day- 263 visitors!  Thank you to all who came to the site today and we sincerely hope you’ll continue to come back.  There are no plans of stopping here on the best music video blog in the universe.  Every time I say that, I think of those TV political news shows.  They always claim they have the “Best political team…” and then add: on television, in America, in the world, in the solar system, in the universe, of all time…

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is the perfect album closer to probably the best Christmas album of all time- “A Christmas Gift For You from Phil Spector”.  That album was so innovative and actually featured GOOD original songs in a holiday mood.  Everyone whose been reading this blog for a while knows that I’m a fan of great album closers.  I hate when a band just shoves some plain old solo acoustic number at the end of the album.  It’s always such a downer and makes you long for Track 1 all over again.  Tonight’s song is one of those album closers that gets you goin’ again!  Plus, it’s the best song on the album, which is a rarity being right at the end.  I do need to point out that after this song, there is a special “Silent Night” track wiht a Christmas message from a very wimpy sounding Phil Spector, so that’s technically the closing track.   But not until I got the album on CD (we just always listened to a compilation of a hundred great Christmas songs my father put together) did I even know that track existed.  And, I shouldn’t have doubted my father’s choice to leave it off of his compilation- that track stinks.

Darlene Love’s vocals are just great on this track.  I hope I didn’t miss her singing this song on David Letterman this year.  She always sings it and she still sounds great.  Although, the pitch of the song has dropped down considerably over time.

I guess this song tonight just proves that I will go to great lengths to sing songs in the original key.  You may have noted that I sang the high parts in my last Christmas music video (Happy Xmas, War is Over) in a lower octave, albeit in the same key.  But, as always, I had a reason for that rare exception to my hard-and-fast rule.  Singing that part in the high register just sounded WAY too much like Yoko Ono, so I decided to salvage the song by taking Yoko out of the equation completely! 🙂

Enjoy tonight’s cover song music video.  I’m very excited, of course, for Christmas.  I know Chris and Jeff will make you proud with their holiday offerings over the next two days.  I can’t wait to see what I got, but more importantly, to see the reactions on the faces of people I got gifts for.  This is shaping up to be a nice Christmas.  I won’t talk to you until after the holiday, so I wish everyone the very best and I thank you all for such a great and exciting year!

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“Christmas (From Now On)” (Chris Moore Original Acoustic Song)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to a special Christmas Eve edition of your best bet for excellence in cover musicianship on the web — the Laptop Sessions home page!

For tonight’s video, I had initially planned on recording my original Christmas song “Moment.”  I have written two original Christmas songs in the past, and I already recorded the other (“Christmas Cards”) last year.  Thus, I began practicing “Moment.”  And I wish I had taken the time to record it earlier, because I really do like that song.  I take issue with some of the lyrics now, as I find them much too cheesy at points, but the overall feel of the song is one that I love.

Then, a song started coming to me.  And I’ll break my general silence on my songwriting process here, as there is such an amalgamation of influences and ideas that came together to forge this song.  First, you should know that I am purposely tipping my hat to the classic Christmas tune “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” with the beginning of my chorus lines.  Also, I used a chord pattern that Jim and I found to be recurrent in a lot of our favorite Christmas songs.  It’s a cycle of sorts with barre chords, starting with a major, going down two frets to a minor, then the lower minor on the same fret, and finally jumping back up to a higher fret.  Then, the same pattern is repeated.

In terms of what the words mean, I started off writing about my feelings about a very important person — my girlfriend of three years — who I’m no longer with.  I haven’t really resolved the situation, so there’s a lot on my mind and I think the emotion got this song started.

Then, I began to think about Christmas in general.  The past few years, I’ve really missed being able to spend the Christmas Eve festivities with my close friends.  Thus, the song shifted to be about reclaiming my Christmas traditions with my friends.

As the lyrics progressed and I changed lines, the song shifted again to be about my grandmother, who passed away a little over a year ago.  This is only my second Christmas without her, and I can’t understate how big a part she has always been of my Christmas.  As a kid, she and my grandfather would come over on Christmas Eve and we would have a really relaxing, enjoyable night — nights that I will forever remember with great fondness.  As a young man and up until last year, Christmas became an increasingly more important opportunity to spend quality time with her.  I don’t quite have the words right now in this format to describe what those days were like or what our relationship was like, and that’s what I tried to accomplish in the song.

Thus, I dedicate this song to my Grandma Moore, a person that I am truly better off for having known and grown up with.  I’m going to miss her a lot tomorrow, but writing this song really did help me to express some of that emotion.

As a final sidenote, I spent tonight at the second annual Fusco-Moore Experience Christmas Eve party.  I didn’t attend last year, but I figured I should probably attend this year, as my name is in the title and all…  According to Jim, the real reason I attended was because I didn’t have anything better to do.  Now, this may be true, but…  Seriously, though, tonight was really relaxing and fun, the food was amazing, I’m somehow still full from the multi-course meal, and thankfully, Jim’s mom cleaned the dishes.  It was a Christmas miracle, as far as I was concerned, that I didn’t have to clean them.  I always expect to, and there was more than double our average amount of dirty dishes tonight!  Thank you again, Mrs. Fusco!!

Jim, Mike, and I are planning a little get-together we’ll call “Mas Christmas” — or, for those of you who do not habla espanol, “More Christmas.”  I’m definitely looking forward to that!

For now, I’m off to get ready for Christmas morning.  It will be a full day, capped off by an all-new episode of TNA Impact! at 9pm in the Fusco Theatre.  And YOU will have an exciting new yuletide Jeff Copperthite video to look forward to…

Merry Christmas and see you next session!

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