Author Archives: Jim Fusco

About Jim Fusco

Jim Fusco is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and all-around musician. Learn all about him and his creative works at http://jimfusco.com!

“Ding Dong Ding Dong” (George Harrison Cover) : Jim Fusco’s 200th Video!

Posted on by
2

By Jim Fusco:

And a Happy New Year to you- I’m Jim Fusco back for another year of the Laptop Sessions.  I’m also back with Number 200!  That’s right, tonight’s video is my 200th and it kicks off a brand new year of great acoustic cover song music videos here on the most popular music blog that isn’t corporately-owned…well, I can’t substantiate that claim… 🙂

Anyway, I figured I’d kick the New Year and new decade off right with a New Year’s song in “Ding Dong Ding Dong”, a hit single off of George Harrison’s Dark Horse album.  If you’ve heard the original version of this song, you probably wondered why George’s voice sounded so raw and raspy.  No, he wasn’t taking vocal cues from his pal (and future Traveling Wilburys member) Bob Dylan.  He was actually suffering from a terrible break-up when his wife ran off with his best friend, Eric Clapton.  It forced the two friends to not speak for a long time (yes, significant others can change people and break friends apart, that’s for sure), but eventually they reconciled…once she and Eric broke up, too!  That’s a fairytale friendship story if I ever heard one.

The title track from Dark Horse also features George’s gravelly vocals and it’s actually a nice tool he uses well on these somewhat bitter songs.  I mean, George was always one to write songs against the “establishment” (like “Taxman”, “Not Guilty”, and “Devil’s Radio”), but this time, it was a more personal fight.  One can only think that “ringing out the old and bringing in the new” has to be correlated to his estranged wife leaving the picture.

And, in the end, George ended up finding his real soulmate in Olivia Harrison, whom he was with until the end and continues to preserve George’s legacy to this day.  Now there’s a woman who really appreciated and “got” him.  So, it all worked out.  I guess sometimes a broken heart is just an opportunity to find something (or someone) better!

I’ve always considered this a Christmas song- remember my post from a few weeks ago about my father’s famed Christmas Compilation tapes?  Well, this song was on it.  And even though it’s loosely based on the New Year and it’s idea of “starting anew”, it’s really not a Christmas song at all.  But, you’ll still never find me listening to “Ding Dong Ding Dong” from January through October!

I’ve already recorded a video for next week- I was on a bit of a roll tonight.  I could’ve done more, but work is really driving me into the ground lately.  So, hopefully I’ll get more gusto in two weeks to record some more videos.  My list is ever-growing.  I have a great forgotten 60’s song lined-up, but next week’s video is a late-90’s Top 10 Billboard hit that is officially the song played most on the radio- it spent 18 weeks at Number One on the Billboard Airplay charts.  That’s the most for any song- ever!

And I can’t believe we haven’t covered it.  My only thought is that I’m the only one here that can sing the chorus, so I’m glad I finally got around to it.  Look for some new bands to come in the near future, as well- it’s going to be another productive year of great cover song music videos…if I can find the time and energy to keep up with it week after week.  Until next week, enjoy “Ding Dong Ding Dong” in LSHD (Laptop Sessions High Definition)!

“Blue Christmas” (Elvis Presley acoustic Christmas cover song)

Posted on by
Reply

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions in high definition!  Tonight, I bring you the second video from last week’s recording session.  This one is truly a classic off of one of my favorite all-time albums: Elvis Presley’s 1957 Christmas Album.

“Blue Christmas” is a song everyone knows.  And, I’m pretty sure that with tonight’s recording, that every single musician in the last 50 years has recorded a version of it.  I happen to do mine in Elvis’ style, but I love Brian Wilson’s version on the Beach Boys Christmas Album, too.  But, while Brian’s version is sad and melancholy, Elvis gives this song so much raw soul.  It’s his “uh-huh” singing at its best and is on my list of “perfect recordings”.  Those are the songs (like, for instance, the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows”) that couldn’t be any better- just the perfect blend of instrumentation, songwriting style, vocals, etc.

Of course, “Blue Christmas” was even recorded earlier than Elvis’s version- as early as 1948!  But, Elvis made it a rock song and that’s the version that everyone knows.

I got to use my colleague Noreen’s 12-string Gibson acoustic from 1967 on this one- what a great sound!  It was so much fun to play.  When you’re using that guitar in a room with good acoustics, you feel like you’re a one man band.  I’m loving this new setup.  And, this week’s video was much easier to edit- literally took just a minute until it was rendering.  It’s such a nice feeling to get something done right the first time.

On a personal note, things have never been busier.  Whether it’s decorating the house, going shopping, cooking, working, etc. I’m never just sitting and relaxing.  I have a feeling it’s going to be like this until after the New Year, but I tell ya- I need some more sleep!  I’m looking forward to a couple of work parties, a couple of get-togethers at the new house, and general Christmas cheer.

If you haven’t done it yet, head on over to WCJM Free Internet Radio at wcjm.com and click on the Moore Hits in the Morning radio in the center of the screen.  You’ll then be taken to all of our radio shows that you can listen to absolutely free- click on any of the numerous Christmas shows and get ready to laugh!  They’re really entertaining and I listen to each of them at least twice each Christmas season to get me in that yuletide mood.

Okay, off to bed now- make sure to keep checking back this week for more great articles and videos from the Only Music Blog- The Laptop Sessions!

“Holiday” (Bee Gees Cover)

Posted on by
Reply

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to the first-ever Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video in high definition, which I’ve dubbed, “LSHD”.  I’m so excited to be on the cutting-edge of technology and hope that more YouTube viewers will see my cover song music videos because of the enhanced new look.

But, what a project doing this for the first time…  Even on my fast Mac Pro, it still took almost an hour just to render this video, and then the audio and video sync kept going off.  So, it was a project that took WAY more time than anticipated.  I think I have a pretty good system going now, so I hope the future music videos will be a bit easier to produce.

Tonight, I enlisted the help of  my colleague Noreen’s 1967 Gibson 12-string acoustic guitar.  It’s pretty sweet, as you see in the video, but also sounds pretty great, as well.  It’s really easy to play and has a very powerful sound.  As soon as I picked it up a couple weeks ago, “Holiday” from the Bee Gees just popped into my head.  Something about that 12-string sound that just reminded me of this song.  So, I knew I had to have it for this video, and I knew I wanted something special for my first one in HD.

Actually, this is also my first music video from my new house, which I share with my new wife.  Yes, the awesome studio is long gone now, but I’ve got a pretty good setup here in one of our spare bedrooms.  Someday I’ll rebuild the studio, but I don’t think it’ll be in the house.  We’ll see.

“Holiday” is one of those songs I’ve known for all my 25 years.  My father put it on his famous Christmas compilation cassette tape set and we heard it every year.  It took me quite a long time to realize that this wasn’t necessarily a Christmas song, though I do hear it on the oldies stations during this time of year.  I thought it would be a nice way to usher in the “season”.  Actually, there are a lot of songs that aren’t really Christmas songs, but I’ll always consider them to be: “Another Morning” from the Moody Blues (off of Days of Future Passed, which is about “a child’s world”, which my father thought reminded him of Christmas), “Eyes of a Child” by the Moody Blues (off of To Our Children’s Children’s Children, which my father took to mean like the birth of a child, like Jesus), “Christmas” by the Who (which is only loosely based on the holiday of Christmas), and “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison (which is a song praising God, but says nothing about the holiday).  Again, they’ll always be Christmas songs to me.

I’m glad I got to know this song- it’s a good tune.  The early Bee Gees were really good and I enjoy many of their early hits.  They’re a band that really re-invented themselves in the seventies.  It’s almost like two completely different bands.  Plus, you know I love a group of brothers that write their own songs and sing in harmony, so it’s a perfect fit!

I never really understood the words to this song, but now I know why- it’s because I still had the kid’s understanding of the lyrics that I thought I “learned” when I was little.  I mean, I learned the words maybe 20 years ago, but my vocabulary then was not what it is now.  So, the line, “put the soft pillow on my head” always came out as “but there’s something upon my head”.  No wonder it never made any sense to me.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my first LSHD video and hope you’ll come back next week for another (and a REAL) Christmas classic!  Welcome to the new era of the Laptop Sessions.

Another New Laptop Sessions Feature: From the Archives!

Posted on by
Reply

Here at the best music video blog ever created (The Laptop Sessions, that is), we pride ourselves on coming up with fresh, new ideas to keep you interested and to get more and more folks to visit our blog.  We just introduced “The Weekend Review” to the site, and now I bring you our latest creation: From the Archives!

You see, a video I recorded a year ago is just as good (and relevant) as a video I recorded yesterday.  But, in Google’s eyes, these old posts are just that: old!  So, they drop off of Google and are never to be seen again.  Thankfully, YouTube tends to be kind to old “seasoned” videos, so we still get hits on those.

Anyway, there are a few WordPress plugins that will actually change the timestamp on your old posts, literally making them new again.  But, years from now, I want to look back and see what I was doing on December 24th of 2007, so I don’t think that’s the best option.

So, I found another plugin that just inserts one of our old blog posts onto the homepage (right at the bottom) dynamically every time you load the homepage.  So, every new visit to the homepage is a different experience!  Try it out and see what I mean.

I hope this will bring our old posts back into light again, at least until I can find an even better SEO’d solution…

Enjoy!