Tag Archives: ballad

“Drive” (The Cars) Cover

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Welcome to your Monday, Monday edition of The Laptop Sessions at https://guitarbucketlist.com !

Tonight, I give you a song from another band we haven’t done yet, “The Cars”.

Now, I always thought that “Just What I Needed” was their biggest hit, but this song, “Drive”, was actually a #3 hit on Billboard pop charts, their highest charting song.

I love this song- it’s the quintessential 80s ballad. The chord progression is great and it’s sung from such a youthful point of view. I mean, the chivalry of driving someone home just doesn’t exist now. And, it’s only been about 20 years!

Another interesting point about this tune is that it was written by the keyboardist for the band, Greg Hawkes. And, the song is originally sung by the bassist, Benjamin Orr. You would expect their biggest hit to go to Ric Ocasek, but that’s the way things go. I always thought that it wasn’t fair that the Doobie Brothers main original guy, Tom Johnston, never got a #1 hit. But, another member, Pat Simmons, did with “Black Water”. And, years later, Michael McDonald did with “What A Fool Believes”.

Well, I hope you enjoy tonight’s Session and make sure to come back tomorrow for Chris’ Session!

“If You Leave Me Now” (Chicago Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to the start of “#1 Week”, where Chris Moore, Jeff Copperthite, and I are playing only songs that topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts, except for Original Wednesday, of course. But, I hope that the song I play on Original Wednesday will be a contender for a #1 week in the future! 🙂

Tonight, I bring you a song that I just can’t get enough of. It’s Chicago’s first #1 hit and was written by the great Peter Cetera.

It’s a slow song, but has a great tune and some great chords. The only problem with the song is that it marked the beginning of Chicago’s “power ballad” phase. It was fruitful for them, yes, but it was also the end of their highly creative rock-n-roll style.

This is one of my favorite performances and I hope it ends up being even more popular than my first Chicago video, “Wishing You Were Here” ( Wishing You Were Here cover ).

NOTE: In 2020, I remastered the original video (which was very dark- almost couldn’t see anything at all!) and re-uploaded it to YouTube, as you’ll see below.  I hope it breathes new life into the video!