Monthly Archives: December 2008

“Holly Jolly Christmas” (Burl Ives Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Good evening, one and all.  This is my first solo Christmas song of the season, and I’m happy to contribute to the holiday spirit we’ve been building not only at the Laptop Sessions but also at the Fusco-Moore Experience.

(For those unaquainted with it, the “Experience” is what the condo has been dubbed.  Why it has, I’m not exactly sure, but if you’d like to find out then give us a call…)

Seriously, this song is a classic number originally performed by the one and only Burl Ives.  I still picture him as a talking snowman/host of children’s Christmas specials.  But, alas, I didn’t have my snowman costume with me tonight, so I just wore my festive green shirt.  I think it sufficed for the video.  🙂

The song itself has undergone the Chris Moore treatment, a combination of steady strumming and lower vocals.  The harmonica solo is just about as “me” as they get.  And this was actually a two-take song for me — a truly rare and pleasant surprise for me!  I actually recorded a second song tonight; it’s not a Christmas tune, so I may record a different one if I get a chance, but it’s always good to have at least one music video in reserve.  I wish I had recorded a surplus a year ago when I got sick mid-winter.  Being our first-ever (and ONLY, I’m sure!) “Session-a-Day” project, I hadn’t anticipated having to record songs with no voice.

As you may recall, I turned to Bob Dylan’s recent catalog for those times that my voice was gruff or worse…

I don’t think you can underestimate how much music plays a part in our lives here at the Laptop Sessions.  Take me, for example.  Just this morning, I kept hitting the snooze on my iPhone alarm just in time to hear only part of the chorus to Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns, and Money.”  Being cut off where it was each time, it sounded like, “I was gambling in a van” (instead of “Havana”).  I don’t know why that struck me as being so funny — it’s a lot less funny now that I’m fully awake and thinking about it — but I ended up staying in bed longer than initially planned just so I could keep trying to hit the snooze at the right time.

I don’t know what that says about me.  Probably just that I didn’t want to get out of bed and would do anything to justify staying in it!

I hope you enjoy my rendition of this Christmas classic and take it for what it is — my sincere wish that you all have a “holly jolly Christmas.”  It’s just over a week around the corner; can you believe it?  I know I can’t.  For once, I’m actually ahead on shopping!

Now, if I could only be ahead on wrapping…

This is why I would be a terrible Santa.  I would be trying to wrap the presents in the sleigh, between houses.  The wind would be kicking up and blowing the paper around, blowing presents out of the vehicle.  It would be bad.

Okay, that’s it for me tonight.

See you next session!

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“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!

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“I Go Blind” (54•40 Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and welcome to Saturday’s awesome session.  I’ve got a new band for tonight’s session!

Well, I know you’ll look at this title and say “Wait a second Jeff – didn’t Hootie and The Blowfish write this song”?

Wrong!  They covered the song from a relatively unknown Canadian band named 54•40.  The band has been around since 1981 and wrote this song for their 1986 self-titled album.  See, we here at guitarbucketlist.com try to throw in a little trivia to our posts here and there.

I know you’ll like this song and this particular cover video.  It proved very difficult to sing over the riff, so I decided to go with a hybrid strum.  It works for most of the video, but there were some spots I was in and out of the entire rhythm.

Also, first video since my voice has fully returned.

Alright, i’m off to sleep – I have a lot to do tomorrow morning. 

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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“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!

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