“Come and Get It” (Badfinger Cover)

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another video in the Laptop Sessions music video blog series!

Tonight, I bring you my 99th video- yes, my 99th video! It’s from yet another band we haven’t done yet: Badfinger!

This song was one of their first singles, written by Paul McCartney while he was still with the Beatles. A version exists of McCartney playing and singing this song himself on the Beatles Anthology Volume 3. Honestly, it sounds exactly the same. That, for me, lets me know why there were so many rumors that Badfinger was just the Beatles in disguise. Of course, that’s not the case. Badfinger’s members actually have a very sad biography- if you ever get a chance to read about it, I think it would be worth your while.

There are many songs from Badfinger that I’d love to do in the future, including “Day After Day”, “Baby Blue”, and “No Matter What”. Those are all great songs and really showed that this group wasn’t just a Beatles spin-off bunch, but a real musical force and a darn-good band.

Come back for more Laptop Sessions videos!

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“Counting Blue Cars” (Dishwalla Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and welcome to your Sunday Sunday Sunday edition of the Laptop Sessions (the preceding quote stolen from Jim Fusco – i’m sure he’s ecstatic I took it away from him). Today I continue a little binge of mine and bring you another song from my teenage years, and I go back to a band and album I have covered before.

However, this time it’s probably a song you’ve heard.

While this song is considered by many to be a “One hit wonder”, I think the album itself is one of my personal favorites, and is quite strong. Now, that could be a bit biased because of nostalgia, but it’s how I feel at least. The band is Dishwalla, and today I bring you their song “Counting Blue Cars” from their album “Pet Your Friends”. I have always enjoyed this song and it is always the song I refer to when i’m trying to explain to someone who Dishwalla is. “Hey, remember that song with the line ‘tell me all your thoughts on God’?”. Invariably, they’d remember.

On this performance I did alter the way I sing a little bit. Please let me know if you like this a little better. I’m experimenting with some singing styles other than my own “standard” voice. This song is a good one to try since I can emulate the lead singers voice quite well. Also, the chorus is the tough area in this song. I played around with singing the first line an octave down, but it sounds way out of place for me. Therefore, this is certainly a WYSIWYG video. I think the only shaky time for me was the very first chorus – the other four times I had to sing the line in question I think I did just fine.

Thank you for checking us out this evening!

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!

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“All Along the Watchtower” (A Bob Dylan Cover)

By Chris Moore:

Now, this is truly a day of firsts for me. Three firsts, if I count them accurately. In order of occurrence: (1) I woke up on my own, on a Saturday, at a decent hour, and got right out of bed. Anyone who knows me on any personal level to any degree knows how amazing that truly is. (2) Then, I recorded my Saturday cover video in one take, including rehearsals. When it comes to these cover song sessions, I am probably more of a perfectionist than I should be. Thus, I repeatedly practice and record the music videos until I’m satisfied I could not do any better. Suffice it to say that usually takes anywhere between five and twenty-five takes. Today, one!! And, finally (3) I came upstairs from FMP Studios to find Jim, having just woken up, in an excellent mood. This is nothing against Jim — and I’m admittedly a bear (not one of those friendly, cuddly ones you might see at a show with a trainer, but one of those angry, blood thirsty ones that attack campers and hikers without provocation ala the John Candy movie The Great Outdoors) if you try to wake me from nodding off during a movie, etc. — but Jim’s just not a morning person. We sat and talked about the music blog, brainstormed some new ways to improve our views and content, and then laughed quite heartily about bathroom humor, the details of which I’ll spare you.

All told, really not a bad way to start a beautiful, sunny summer day!

But let’s get down to business. My acoustic cover song for today is Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” Ironically, you are probably more familiar with the Jimi Henrix’s cover version than you are of Dylan’s original music. And, even as a HUGE Dylan fan, I have to admit that Hendrix’s cover song is the definitive version. Even Dylan admitted as much — his live performances of the song still reflect Hendrix’s arrangement. That being said, Dylan’s original is heavily acoustic, so I felt that would be a better version for this acoustic guitar music video. So, I grabbed my acoustic guitar, dusted off my harmonica rack, and gave it my all. One take. Could it have been better, more polished? Yes, I suppose. But this is what the Laptop Sessions are all about — this is a snapshot in time, as though you sat down with me in my living room and I just played it for you, on a whim. I hope you enjoy it!

See you next session!

**EDITOR’S NOTE: This video is no longer on YouTube, but please check out our other Bob Dylan cover songs here on the music video blog!

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“Hungry Heart” (Bruce Springsteen cover)

By Jim Fusco:

How is it even possible that we can keep rolling out quality new music artists like Bruce Springsteen here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic song music video blog? I mean, we have over 80 categories now on the site, and we STILL have not done a song from such heavy-hitters as the Rolling Stones & Crosby, Stills, and Nash. But, with time, we’ll be adding these great bands and musicians to our catalog of acoustic cover songs.

Tonight, I bring you our first-ever Bruce Springsteen song, dedicated to my good friend, and fellow Mets fan, John Grabar, a huge Springsteen fan. Honestly, there are many songs from Springsteen that I’d like to do for future Laptop Sessions, but this one always struck me as catchy and meaningful. But, I will admit, it was only a few years ago that I learned this was actually Bruce singing the lead to this tune! I mean, it barely sounds like him, especially like he sounds in such hits as “My Hometown”.

“Hungry Heart” is one of those special songs that honestly has four chords (save for the ten second interlude in the middle) and the same chords repeat for the verse and the chorus. I mean, if you can get away with it, make a good song, and sell a ton of copies, then why not?

Well, that’s all for me tonight. You’ll remember it was three weeks ago that I gave the reigns over to Chris and Jeff for the weekend and the website went down for three days. Of course, it wasn’t their fault AT ALL, but it’s still fun to tease them about it. I’m planning on meeting my good friends Dave and Dana tomorrow night for a beer, and I’m really looking forward to it. Now that things are (finally) stable here on the blog, I can start to prioritize my life again…without making “fix the blog” come in at #1.

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