“Royals” (Lorde cover) – The Guest Sessions

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Welcome to the first post of the New Year here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!

I, for some reason, inherited the reigns on the Guest Sessions.  It’s a daunting task, as we get many, many, many submissions sent to us.  I think the Guest Sessions submission page is our most popular page here on the music blog!  I’d say the ratio of good videos to bad videos is about 50/50, but even some of those good videos just aren’t right for the Laptop Sessions style of cover song videos.  Once in a while, I come across a video that’s done in our normal music video style, like the one I’m presenting here today.

Of the really great things about The Guest Sessions here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog is that we get submissions for songs that we would never normally cover ourselves.  We also get artists that I’ve never even heard of before, but are popular in today’s music scene.

Today’s video, “Royals”, is a cover of a song I hear constantly on the radio.  I’m sure there are thousands of covers of this song on YouTube, as I see the chords aren’t exactly difficult.  The original artist is Lorde, who is a singer and songwriter from New Zealand.  The song is about the feelings of making the best of what you have because, face it, 99.99999999% of us will never be royalty!

Holly Drummond, a young British woman, sent in this video of her playing guitar and singing “Royals”.  While not necessarily my style of music to begin with, I can definitely appreciate Holly’s talent and ability to cover this song well.  I hope you’ll check it out and let Holly know what you think!

Stay tuned for more Guest Sessions videos as the weeks roll on- I’ve got plenty to choose from, so there will always be something new to read and watch here on the best music blog out there- the Laptop Sessions!



“Just A Dream” (Nelly Cover)

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By Pat Noonan:

My first impression of “Just A Dream” by Nelly was how big and full the hook sounded for such a ballad-ish song, so I wanted to try to really strip it down to just two tracks for an acoustic version, pretty much the opposite approach to covering “Just The Way You Are” last week (see YouTube). I ended up cutting some of the song out, slightly altering the melody/lyrics in some places, writing a fitting acoustic guitar part and changing some of the chords. The ending I did seemed appropriate because that’s actually the song that gets stuck in my head whenever I hear the Nelly song haha so I hope you like it; let me know what you think!

** EDITOR’S NOTE: **

It’s not every day that I check my inbox and find a link to an acoustic cover version of a Nelly song.

Well, it apparently happens sometimes, because I’m here to welcome back Pat Noonan for his second featured video on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video blog.  He’s chosen an interesting track to cover, and his performance highlights his impressive vocals. I have the strong suspicion that you’ll enjoy this as much as I did.

Happy Friday, and check back soon for new material here at the blog!

“No Excuses” (Alice In Chains Acoustic Rock Cover)

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By Jeff:

Welcome to Thumpin’ Thursday!  I’ve got a great alternative song that I had completely forgotten about up until recently.

Two weeks ago my wife & I bought a Nintendo Wii after a long time of debating whether we wanted it enough to buy it.  Well, thankfully that answer is yes.  We bought a few games we knew we’d like, which included the line of “Wii” games (including the Wii fit, which i’m happy to report is actually quite effective), and I also bought Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero: Metallica.

Well,  next week I hope that I can actually…cover a Metallica song!  An acoustic cover?  You bet!  I’m sure those that are reading this will probably narrow the possibilities down to about 3 songs.

But the reason I mention Guitar Hero: Metallica (besides the fact that I love it and am currently working on 5-starring all the songs on Hard) is because today’s song is in this game.  It helped to remind me that it existed, and that it would make a great session entry.

So today I bring you “No Excuses” by Alice in Chains from their 1994 album “Jar of Flies”.  This song always sounded like it’d be more difficult than it actually is.  The lyrics and song always made me sing along throughout my teenage years.  I love the chorus that fits right in to the mood.

The song is very easy to play.  Tune the guitar down 1/2 step, and play a standard A barre chord, but only press down on the low E string with your index finger, leaving the B and high E string open the entire song.  Slide that up to the 7th fret, and back again for the verse.  For the chorus, bring it down to G, then A, B, A, G, A, then E in standard position (I use my middle, ring, and pinky to play the chord so it allows me to return to the barre position for the verse).

I tried to use a slightly different position today, facing the sound hole from the guitar towards the camera.  It seemed to work for “Hello, it’s Late” from last month.

I hope you enjoy today’s entry, and next week perhaps I’ll see you for another great session!  TTFN!

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!

“Give” (Dishwalla Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

What a great week this has been doing “New Bands Week”. To close it out, I have an obscure song that i’m not sure many will recognize.

The band I have dug out from the archives is Dishwalla, and their single “Give” from their debut album Pet Your Friends. You may recognize the band name from their single “Counting Blue Cars”. This was also a single, but received little airplay.

The song has a weird organ solo at the end that I didn’t attempt to play backing chords too, so I simply ended the song with the last line “What would you give?”. There are a few songs from this band that I know how to play, so you may see them again in the future.

Be sure to check out http://jimfusco.com tomorrow for my new album Greenlight. Jim has been hard at work getting everything all set for its release, and I can’t wait to give you an opportunity to hear it! Until then, enjoy today’s Laptop Session and check back tomorrow for that and a brand new session from the Fuscinator himself.

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!