“Wishing You Were Here” (Chicago Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello all and welcome to another installment of the Laptop Sessions!!

Here’s a neat one because of the collaborative effort on the original. This song, Wishing You Were Here, written by the great Peter Cetera, is one of my favorite Chicago songs. I love many of their other songs as well, and you’ll be hearing them in the coming weeks!

But, this one has to be one of Cetera’s best. I mean, he got bandmate Terry Kath to sing lead on the verses with a real raspy voice, then the Beach Boys (well, Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, and Dennis Wilson, anyway) come in with the rest of Chicago and sing those great harmonies on the “Wishing You Were Here” part. Plus, Cetera even sings a great lead on the middle 8!  I’ve always been drawn to this Chicago song, even before I knew the Beach Boys were on it.  I guess when you like a certain style of music, certain tones just strike a chord with you…no pun intended. 🙂

Over the years, I’ve also come to appreciate the subject matter of “Wishing You Were Here”.  Lines like, “Same old show in a different town, on another time,” tell us about how life on the road in a band can be tough.  Fans can only see the good things- the wealth, the fame, and the opportunity to sing and play music.  What could be better than that?  But often, I find myself thinking that I would very quickly miss my family and friends.  In fact, it’s one of the reasons why I never just dropped everything to pursue music!  It’s the subject of my 2009 album, “Halfway There”, available on my website at http://jimfusco.com.  On that album, there are original songs that talk about my passion for music, but also my want to get married and settle down.  It was quite the dueling conflict with me for a while. I think I summed it up pretty well on that album- I hope you think my songwriting gets the sentiment across.  Anyway, when you’re in a very popular band making hit songs like Chicago was in the 70s, you realize that the fans only want to hear the songs they heard on the radio.  Hey, there weren’t any free internet radio stations like WCJM Radio back in the day to play all of the obscure tracks.  So, the fans wanted to hear all the hits…so as a band, you had to play the hits everywhere you went!  It’s still that way now, but I just think Peter Cetera pointed out that fact of “popular band life” in “Wishing You Were Here”.

I’ve been playing this song since I learned to play a G minor chord, and thanks to my brother for buying me a Chicago music book! It’s definitely come in handy…

Anyway, this is definitely one of those “check it off the list” songs for me, because I’ve always wanted to pay homage to this tune. I hope you enjoy this Chicago cover song!

The Newest Video Blog – A Series by Songwriters!

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By Jeff Copperthite:

I know you wonder how it is going with the Fusco-Moore Productions crew, so here is another update.

As you have seen, as of Saturday all members of FMP have contributed to the Laptop Sessions, and they are slowly gaining popularity among youtube viewers (as well as those reading this blog – like yourself. You’re a distinguished individual for reading this blog!), and hopefully other well known people.

However, you’ll notice Thursday was the last time I have done a session. There are two reasons for this.

One, I want to get to know the video software that came with my web camera, because Youtube quickcapture is a bit, well, slow. When you watch them, it looks like our strumming hand is one huge blur. That, and you can see us going to the computer to click “Save and Continue”. You’ll also notice Jim and Chris’ videos have titles to them. I want to learn how to do that, so that way, you can hear as little of my voice as possible.

The second is Friday night I injured my left index finger – falling up the stairs. Just when that people only fell down the stairs, I have defied yet another law of nature. That was all that happened, and thankfully it isn’t broken. It is a bit swollen right now, but I figure tomorrow or Tuesday it should be fine enough to play again.

Speaking of playing and recording, another song is almost done for the EP. Only the bass is left to record. I can’t wait to get to the other 3 songs to record. I can see the end of recording in sight. Baseball season is over as of Saturday, so now the weekends are now much more available.

When my finger does heal, I will be playing a couple of Jim Fusco originals on my laptop sessions installments. Hopefully Jim’s ears won’t cringe (or his eyes for that matter) when he hears them.

Until then…

“And Then I Kissed Her” (Beach Boys Cover)

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By Jim Fusco

Here’s a great Beach Boys cover song originally done by The Crystals as “And Then He Kissed Me”. Brian Wilson loves Phil Spector’s music and re-did this tune (with Al Jardine on great lead vocals) with a Beach Boys touch. Of course, my version is stripped-down and it’s just me, but it’s a fun song to play and I think it sort of represents my project. Brian Wilson covered a song from his idol, and I cover songs from my favorite musicians here on the Laptop Sessions!

In 2013, Brian Wilson toured with Al Jardine and Al sang this song in concert.  You wouldn’t believe it, but Al (in his 70s) still sings this song great!  His voice is largely unchanged and he sings and plays it just like he did in the 60s.  It’s great to see him out there with his white Fender Stratocaster, just like he did so many years ago.  It’s actually a stark contrast from Brian Wilson himself.  I guess it just goes to show you that if you take care of yourself, you’ll still look and sound great later in life.  Paul McCartney seems to be that way, as does Ringo Starr.  But, guys like Ozzy Osbourne and Keith Richards choce the rockstar lifestyle back in the day.  Sure, they lived it up, but you can only stay that way for so long.  Their talent is still there, but it’s masked under a cloud of slurred speech and horribly wrinkled skin!

One thing about the Beach Boys is that they always did amazing cover songs.  From “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?” to “Cottonfields” and beyond, they always took songs and gave it the Beach Boys’ treatment.  Take “Sloop John B”, for example.  That was an old traditional song that Al Jardine brought to Brian Wilson’s attention.  Brian turned it into a pop song and it became a Top 5 hit!  The Beach Boys also had a Top 5 hit with their cover of Chuck Berry’s “Rock’n’roll Music” in the 70s, though that version isn’t too far of a departure from the original version back in the 50s.  Later on in the 80s, the Beach Boys collaborated with Roger McGuinn (formerly of the Byrds) to do a cover of the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin'”.  That version is a lot different from the original, mostly because of McGuinn’s amazing 12-string electric guitar (Rickenbacker) playing throughout.

So, sit back, relax, and watch my cover song version of the Beach Boys’ “And Then I Kissed Her” here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog.  I hope you enjoy and stay tuned for more!

NOTE: This video from 2007 has been remastered in 2020 for enhanced video and sound.

“Do You Want To Know A Secret” (Beatles Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello everyone- time for another episode of “The Laptop Sessions”. Boy, do I have a lot of these in the works for you. I have two more requests for Beach Boys cover songs, plus Chris and I still have to do our Moody Blues song and another Beatles cover song. Somewhere down the line I’d like to throw in one of my original songs, too.  Oh, you didn’t know that I was a songwriter? 🙂  Well, that’s one of the reasons I do the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog.  I’m hoping that the people who like the cover songs I play will take a chance and listen to my original music, as well!  So far, it’s been a great success.

Tonight’s cover song video is the Beatles song, “Do You Want To Know A Secret”, originally sung by the great George Harrison. This is a fun song to play and sing, especially because it’s got those minor 7th chords that make it sound a bit “old fashioned”.  People just don’t write songs like this anymore.  It’s one of the earliest Beatles songs released, so it was written during their period of relative innocence (you know, before the drugs).  John Lennon wrote this song and gave it to George to sing.  His heavy British accent really comes through on this track.  I sang, though, in my normal New England American accent, as I do with all my cover song videos.  My goal here at the music blog is not to imitate the artists I cover, but to reimagine my favorite songs in a stripped-down acoustic solo performance.

I chose to go with my nylon-stringed acoustic guitar for this song.  Why?  Well, for one, it’s much easier to sing over than a steel-stringed guitar.  For this cover video, I wanted to sing a bit softer and sweeter (just like George Harrison did!), so I thought this guitar was the right choice not to overpower my voice.  Also, and I’ve gotten a lot of compliments about this, the strumming pattern I used works so much better on this guitar than steel-string acoustic guitar.  Because I don’t have the solid drumming of Ringo Starr behind me, I had to come up with a way of playing that incorporated the unique beat of “Do You Want To Know a Secret” while playing by myself.  The “hops” that are in the chord progression really move the sog along well and I found it to be an easy way of switching chords, as well.  Plus, sliding down like that gave my version that cool retro sound I was talking about before.  It sounds like a song from the 40s when played that way!

Of course, requests are welcome for any other Beatles or George Harrison song you’d like to hear!  Everyone knows pretty much all of the Beatles songs, so my “to-do list” is pretty extensive at this point.  I hope you enjoy tonight’s cover song video and stay tuned for more Laptop Sessions music videos in the coming days!