Monthly Archives: December 2008

“Burning Love” (Elvis Presley Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

It’s just a hunka-hunka-burnin’-cover-song tonight on the Laptop Sessions!

Oh, yes, the Session-a-day project is winding down, but the energy still lives on in this acoustic cover song video, as I deliver one of my new favorite videos. I thought of doing this song a while ago, but never got around to it. Tonight, I needed something that would give me a “Sunday night spark”, as I’m usually pretty laid-back on Sunday nights.

This weekend was crazy. I had a work party on Friday (where I finally got to meet Dr. Perricone), came home and slept for three hours, woke up and went to see my good friend Matt Griffiths’ directing job on a one-act play at Southern Connecticut State University, went out to SBC Brewery for dinner with Becky and Danielle, came home and stayed up video editing (and hanging out with Chris and Dana) all the way till 7:30 am (!!!), waking up at 11:45 to go to our weekly “Luncho Marx” with my father at Burger King, driving down to my cousin Lou’s house in Branford to drop off my wedding video edits, coming back to do a bit of shopping, going to see “Quantum of Solace” (which was good) with Chris, leaving right from there to go to another Christmas party, came home to practice some Christmas songs and sleep, woke up to pack the car and drive an hour to another Christmas party (where I played Santa Claus and played Christmas songs with Chris and Becky), and finally came home after usual Sunday dinner at my parents’ house.

Yikes- what a sentance!

Anyway, I finally got a chance to sit down when I remembered that it was my night to post a cover song video here on the blog! And, since this blog is a true musical lifeline for me, I was all too happy to do it. This is almost my 150th music video and I’m so proud of the work we’ve done here on the best music video blog online!

Tonight’s song is an Elvis tune from the early 70s. I remember my father telling me that this song was an Elvis comeback of sorts because he returned to rock’n’roll after years of awful lounge-singing. I think The King’s story is truly one of most tragic in all of pop culture. He was the Britney Spears of his day. “Burning Love” was a huge hit, but sadly, this did not stop Elvis on his decline and he never came out with such a rockin’ single for the rest of his life.

I think the best part about this song is just how classic it sounds. He got the Jordanaires back to sing backup, the song has a great beat, and it really highlights Elvis letting loose on the vocals, especially at the end.

It’s also an incredibly easy song to play. If you can play D-G-A-Bm, you’re all set. Just husk-up that voice and get your best Elvis impression going. Actually, we recorded the performance today of Christmas song, so I may post it, depending on how good it came out. On that, I got to do a couple of Elvis Christmas songs, which have to be my all-time favorites. The only other contender is the Beach Boys Christmas album. Although, in the past few years, there have been some AMAZING Christmas offerings from the likes of Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Barenaked Ladies, America, and the Moody Blues. I cherish these albums as new classics every single year.

I’ll be back for an Original Wednesday that’s so good, it’s like “Your Secret Santa decided to ignore the spending limit but you didn’t and he’s not mad” good! 🙂 Wow, I’m way too proud of that one right now- I’m laughing out loud.

Have a great night and we’ll see you back here after two amazing new Sessions from Chris and Jeff!

“Run Rudolph Run” (Chuck Berry Christmas Song Cover)

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Welcome to your Thumpin Thursday©™ edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!

Tonight, Chris and I bring you another acoustic-electric tune in Chuck Berry’s classic Christmas hit, “Run Rudolph Run”.  And NO, that’s not “Run Run Rudolph” as many people (including me up to a couple years ago) think.  I’m not sure why Berry titled it the way he did, but if that’s the way it is, you know the Laptop Sessions will stay true to the original.

I like this performance a lot because it gave me a chance to do a guitar solo, which I rarely get to do on these music videos.  And this is a pretty rockin’ solo, too.  It’s always so much fun to play it.  But, to be honest, I’m actually not that huge of a fan of Chuck Berry’s version.  I mean, I love the song, but his version is just so subdued.  It sounds like a song that he just farted out in like two takes, then said, “It’s good.  It’s like playing rock’n’roll into my eighties good,” and then left the studio.

I love his guitar playing style, though.  It always sounds so effortless.  I even have a Chuck Berry influenced guitar, but a string was broken and I was too lazy to play it.  You can search for Masters of the Universe’s live version of this song to see me playing my Chuck Berry guitar!

Actually, I kind of have this “thing” against Chuck Berry for no good reason.  One time, a long time ago, my mother went to Chuck Berry concert.  They waited for HOURS for him to arrive, as he was late for one reason or another.  Well, he came out, played like two songs, and left.  She never forgave him.

I can’t believe it’s another Original Wednesday week for me starting on Sunday, which is when you’ll see me next.  After I’m done with some other freelance work I’ve been doing, I’ll be able to devote a bit more time to promoting the Laptop Sessions and our new site, Cover-Songs.com, in hopes of increasing our site views by 50% by February.  You know what would help the most?  WORD OF MOUTH!  So, tell your friends, blog about us, put a link on MySpace- DO ANYTHING and help us get the word out!  The more excited we are, the more we’ll do for the site.  And the more views we get, the more excited we are.  So, I hope everyone will chip in and tell a friend about the Laptop Sessions.

Have a great night and we’ll all be looking forward to the weekend…not to mention great videos from Chris and Jeff.  It’ll be “like having two weekend nights off before your next cover song music video” good!

Jim Fusco Reaches 150,000 YouTube Video Views!

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Another milestone here on the best music video blog online: the Laptop Sessions!  It’s been just over a year doing videos for me and I’m happy to say that I’m at 150,000 YouTube views!  I know that’s not a whole heck of a lot compared to some of the INDIVIDUAL videos that are on YouTube, but for a guy from CT, it’s pretty cool.  I wonder when I’ll hit half a million or even a million?  How cool would that be?

Thank you, as always, to all of our loyal fans.  We’re nearing the end of the Session-a-day project, but are looking forward to our once a week (each) schedule for 2009.  That way, I’ll have more time to write on the blog and we’ll all have more time to perfect our videos.

Here’s to the next 150,000 views!

Last episode of Boston Legal? A few words…

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By Chris Moore:

How sad is it that there are no more new Boston Legal episodes to look forward to?  No more soulful grunts in the opening music?  No more balcony scenes with Denny and Alan?  No more high profile, current events-based court drama?  No more paintball gun violence by Denny?  No more pops and clicks by Jerry?  No more attempts by Alan and Denny to win Shirley’s love?

And no more Katie Lloyd??

I really don’t have much to say on the topic, other than the fact that Jim and I have been avid fans of Boston Legal since day one.  As recently as this year, we celebrated the season premiere by buying pretzel sticks that resembled cigars and eating/”smoking” them along with Alan and Denny in the closing balcony scene of the episode.  Now, I suppose I can see this as an opportunity to get more work done or go to bed an hour earlier on Mondays, but it’s just not worth it.  Boston Legal has truly been a great way to jumpstart the week for me.  It may sound silly, but I look foward to being able to sit down with Jim (and sometimes Becky) and enjoy this show — one of our mutual favorites on television.

So, I couldn’t just let it pass without some sort of a blog post.

And, as if this wasn’t obvious, I have more than a little hatred — rational, or otherwise — burning in my soul for the ABC network right now.  What better way to release it?

Thank you, Boston Legal — it’s been a great run.  What I will miss most is the characters (I even grew to like Carl Sack!) and the ridiculous situations they got themselves into.  Truly, there is not a show on television with Boston Legal‘s combination of serious issues and humor, and I’ll greatly miss it.

Yay for TV on DVD!