Welcome to another all-new Jim Fusco Thursday and another video in our series of Beach Boys cover songs here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!  Well, that’s a technicality because the Beach Boys just covered this song on their 1976 album, “15 Big Ones”.  It’s actually from Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon!

I believe this will be my last “weekly” cover song music video, as I’m going to switch to a bi-weekly schedule like I mentioned before.  This will allow me to be more creative with my videos and will also give me a chance to promote the videos I already made.  I mean, this is video #212 already!  And I’ve noticed that my views per day are pretty stagnant, even though I have more and more each week.  That means my older videos aren’t getting views anymore, and that’s just a shame!  I will make a point to post every Thursday night, however, with some interesting pieces on music, guitars, and rock’n’roll, so you’ll still get your weekly “Jim Fusco Fix”!

Before tonight’s video, I have two things to mention:

First, for my brother Mike’s birthday, I made him a long overdue iPhone website!  That means it’s specifically formatted for the iPhone (but will work on any mobile phone, too).  It’s SOOOO cool- you’d never know it was a website- it looks like an iPhone App!  Plus, if you bookmark http://mikefusco.com on your iPhone to your Home screen, you’ll see a cool logo button of Mike and the website will open up in “full screen” mode, so it’ll look like an authentic iPhone app!  You can watch Mike’s YouTube videos, listen to his music, and stay updated with him on his live Twitter feed!  CLICK HERE TO VIEW MIKE’S SITE!

The second thing is that in two weeks, you’ll be hearing a much nicer sound in my acoustic cover song music videos.  I won’t give anything away just yet, but trust me, it’ll put my videos into the Major Leagues.

Okay, onto “Palisades Park” by Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon.  I love the personas they gave 50’s and early 60’s stars.  Everyone had to be bigger than life.  They had to be icons of their days.  And songs like “Palisades Park”, though not very complex or difficult, will always be remembered as the roots of rock’n’roll, and therefore classics.

“Palisades Park”, written after an amusement park in New Jersey, was actually not an “A” side.  For those of you born in the 80’s and later, an “A” side was the side of a vinyl record that was officially released as a single.  Yes, before iTunes, you could buy individual songs!  🙂  Well, actually, the flip-side of the record had another song on it, known as (big surprise) the “B” side.  Usually, these were throw-away songs, especially early-on.  There were a few double-sided hit singles, namely “Come Together” and “Something” from the Beatles, so it was possible to have two hits on one vinyl single.

Anyway, “Palisades Park” wasn’t meant to be the hit, but apparently a DJ played the “B” side of the record by accident and the song caught on in a big way- all the way up to Number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts!  And, in 1962, there was some pretty fierce competition.

I actually knew this song more intimately because of the Beach Boys cover version on their 1976 album, “15 Big Ones”, where they played covers of early rock’n’roll songs, mixed with originals that sounded similarly.  The Beach Boys version isn’t great, but I still like Carl Wilson’s lead vocals- you’ll probably hear some phrases sung like Carl here because that’s the way I’m used to singing the song.  I knew Freddy Cannon’s version first, but listened to the Beach Boys version many, many more times.

Well, that’s all for me tonight- so happy it’s Spring now and I’m looking forward to some great times in the next few months.  I’m a little sad about going to a 26 episodes a year schedule, but I’ve already got a dozen songs lined up and ready to record, so don’t think I’m losing my inspiration!  In fact, my new “sound” is meant to boost my inspiration and get me to write and record again.  So, until next week, I hope you have a great weekend and enjoy “Palisades Park” by Freddy Cannon (and covered by me, Jim Fusco!).