Tag Archives: acoustic cover

“Working My Way Back To You” (Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

I suppose I should’ve done a song today to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of “The Day the Music Died”.  You know, maybe a Buddy Holly tune, or something from the Big Bopper or Ritchie Valens.  But, I decided to honor their memory in a different way…by completely forgetting to do a song by them until I just started writing this post…

Sorry Buddy, Bopper, and Ritchie.

Well, I am happy to bring you a new artist to the music video blog tonight, anyway.  And this person’s still alive (and apparently still putting on some great concerts)- Frankie Valli!  He and his group, the Four Seasons, had so may hits in the sixties (and even a couple big ones later on in the disco era) and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to do one of their songs.

Apparently the Spinners had a big hit with “Working My Way Back To You” in the early eighties, but I’ve always known this original version from 1966 that went all the way to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.  It was a nice challenge to recreate the vocal abilities of Frankie Valli, as he’s always been known for his whiny falsetto.  I don’t necessarily have that kind of falsetto, but I think it gets the sentiment across.  In fact, if you read my post from last Tuesday, you’ll see my comments about how falsetto voices are very hard to reproduce.  That’s because everyone’s voice goes into falsetto at different notes up the scale.  So, you’ll notice in this video that I tend to only do a few notes in falsetto during that last chorus.

I was mentioning to Becky earlier that you can always tell when a song was done by a group that doesn’t write their own songs.  Rock music songwriters usually won’t go out of their way to add a key change for the last, repeating, chorus.  But, as with showtunes and more “vocalist” acts like the Temptations, the Four Tops, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, they take songs from these “serial songwriters” that just write (and not perform) songs for a living.  So, they try to make these big productions out of their songs, which usually includes a key change.  Go back and listen to some of the more “lounge-singer” type acts from the sixties like Johnny Rivers- you’ll hear exactly what I mean.

It’s always fun to bring you another great acoustic cover song music video here on Jim Fusco Tuesdays on the Laptop Sessions music video blog.  Since I brought you the past two Original Wednesday posts, I’m going to take tomorrow off and hope that Chris and/or Jeff will step in.  We’re excited again today because the blog reached 304 views- our NEW best view count for a day!  Thank you to all of the new fans of the Laptop Sessions and especially to those that always come back to see my videos on Tuesday.

Have a great week and I’ll be back again for Jim Fusco Tuesday next week on the greatest (and now, most popular) music video blog ever created!

“Second That Emotion” (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

I know you’ve been waiting for this all week…it’s Jim Fusco Tuesday here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!  Yes, that’s right, your favorite place to get acoustic covers and rock music videos from three of the best indie songwriters you’ll find.

I’m having SO much fun playing with my new Mac Pro right now.  It just amazes me to be typing this on one 22″ Acer monitor and to have the other monitor rendering a video at a clip about 25 times faster than my old machine.  It makes me feel more productive without actually doing anything!

The computer’s setup is finally complete.  I’ve had it since last Friday and Becky helped me put together (and find) the great L-shaped desk, while Dana helped me to set everything up and give some sage advice.

Meanwhile, Chris was heeding my pleas to do some work on the music video blog here, as he’s decided (quite ambitiously) to post the chords to every single song he plays this year.  Here’s hoping that he’ll play a song I’ve actually heard of…

Now, if you haven’t heard of tonight’s song, you must’ve been living under a rock for the past forty years.  One of Motown’s greatest songwriters, Smokey Robinson, wrote this tune that he did with his group, the Miracles.  Smokey was, and still is, a writer for many other acts.  One song you just might have heard of was an incredibly huge hit for the Temptations, entitled “My Girl”.  Smokey truly is the man.

I also love tonight’s cover song, “Second That Emotion”, because Smokey sings in his classic falsetto throughout the song.  Now, this actually poses a bit of problem, believe it or not.  You see, everyone’s voice kind of hits falsetto at a different note.  Brian Wilson always went into falsetto at exactly the right times and I don’t believe I’ve really ever heard Carl Wilson use his falsetto voice.  That said, my falsetto range tends to be a bit on the high side.  Meaning that whenever I sing songs that are mostly in falsetto, I find it more comfortable to sing most of it in my regular voice.  That makes it hard to switch halfway through.  But, I practiced and practiced until it worked really well.  Here’s to you, Smokey!

Tonight, I’m happy I can bring you another great Motown hit from the sixties.  It’s so funny to see the breakdown of decades here on the video blog.  Chris and Jeff have the 90s and 200s locked solid.  Then there’s me bringing up the rear, taking the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s by a large margin.  And every I say or write “large margin”, I’m forced to think of “Large Marge” from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.  My cousin, brother, and I watched that movie all the time when we were little.  Then, I watched it again recently and realized that it’s a freakin’ hilarious flick.  If you haven’t seen it for a while (or were scared of it when you were little, like I was), you really should give it another chance.

Okay, I’ve ranted long enough for one night.  Tune in tomorrow night for a GIGANTIC premeire here on the best music video blog ever created!

Why’s it such a milestone?  Well, I’m going to bring you the title track to my upcoming new album, “Halfway There” on Original Wednesday!  I know you’ll love the song, especially after the great reaction I got from “Only A Dream” last week.  Thanks to ilsy74 on YouTube for sending out the video and promoting our original work.  I’m very excited to get the reaction to my new material and I’ll be back soon enough to bring it to you!  Until then, have a great night and enjoy tonight’s Motown acoustic cover song music video!

“Blue World” (Moody Blues cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another version of Jim Fusco Tuesdays here on the best music video blog ever created: the Laptop Sessions!

My special guest is coming, I promise, but we’ll have to wait at least another week.  But, it’ll be a great performance and I’m really looking forward to it.

So, I had to do an impromptu video tonight.  I have been practicing this song for many months now, but I always had other Moody Blues songs cued-up so I never got to it.  But, I had to do this video tonight up in my room because it’s just simply too cold in the studio now and I don’t wanna wait for the heat to kick in.

So, the video doesn’t look that great, but the sound is there, and that’s the most important thing, isn’t it? 🙂

Tonight, I bring you a great song by the Moody Blues from their album “The Present”.  This might be considered the last great Moody Blues album, because they were still popular, relevant, and had all four members contributing in a significant way.  I, of course, love the “Strange Times” album, but I definitely feel like I’m the only person in Connecticut (other than people I know personally) that knows of that album.

“Blue World” is a well-done song and has a classic Justin Hayward sound to it.  I love the chorus and I even love that over-the-top Pat Moraz keyboard/synth work.

The only problem with this song is the introspective lyrics that Hayward is so accustomed to writing.  He’s like the Mike Love of the band.  I mean, in this song, Hayward mentions his songs “The Voice” and “Fly Me High”.  He’s done this in other songs, as well.  But the thing is that “The Voice” was from the PREVIOUS album!  It’s not like he had a lot of time to reflect on the message of that song…

Well, I hope you enjoy tonight’s entry into the Laptop Sessions’ catalog.  Chris and I are going to have a battle to the death to find out who’s stuck with Original Wednesday tomorrow, but I may guilt him into it, seeing that I’ll be away on business for the first time!  I may be back in time and I’ll have stories to tell.  I’ve never been to New York City alone before, so tomorrow should be interesting!  Have a great one and I’ll be back sooner than you think!

“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!