Tag Archives: brian wilson

“Good Timin” (Beach Boys Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Here’s a great tune from the Beach Boys, originally sung by the legendary Carl Wilson (written mostly by Brian).  Good Timin’ is one of those gems that clocks in at just over 2 minutes.  But, so do many of the Beach Boys’ hit songs.  Of course, most of those I’m talking about came out in the early 60s.  “Good Timin'” is from 1980, off of the “Keepin’ the Summer Alive”.  (**EDIT: no it’s not! It’s from “L.A. (Light Album) in 1979! But the whole original post is about “Keepin’ the Summer Alive”, so I’ll keep the rest of the original post intact. 😃). It’s not the best album of all time, but it holds some serious sentimental value with me.

You see, every year on the last day of school, we would get picked up from school in my dad’s 1990 Camaro.  He’d pull up to the school, blasting “Keeping the Summer Alive”.  It was the sure-fire way to know that summer was here!  So, I associate this album with being extremely happy and that great times were ahead.  So, even though I know “Keeping the Summer Alive” isn’t the Beach Boys’ best album, I still love it.  I’ll be doing many acoustic cover songs off of that album in the future.

“Good Timin'” just sounds like a classic Beach Boys song.  I can imagine that they were all very proud of this track when they were finished.  Plus, the song has a great message.  I end up singing “Good Timin'” to myself quite often.  And nothing feels better than when you’ve got good timing on something- it could even be a well-timed joke.  When the timing clicks, you can’t help but feel good about yourself.

One note about “Keepin’ the Summer Alive”- it’s the last album Dennis Wilson appeared on for the Beach Boys, but he’s hardly on it.  In fact, the credits only say he played percussion on the song “Endless Harmony”!  I always thought he had the line, “Goin’ on!” in the raspy voice (in the song with the same name), but it turns out it was just a 350 pound Brian that sang that line.  It’s such a shame that Dennis didn’t get to contribute, whether it was his fault or not.  He had such a great contribution to “L.A. (Light Album)” the year before with songs like “Baby Blue” and “Love Surrounds Me”, plus an amazing lead vocal on “Angel Come Home”, written by his brother, Carl.  I’ll probably be recording acoustic versions of those songs, too, as they could use the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song treatment!

I love this period in Beach Boys history, as they were making great music from every one of the band members, not just Brian.  I hope you’ll agree and that you’ll enjoy tonight’s Beach Boys cover song.

“The Warmth of the Sun” (Beach Boys Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Here’s one plenty of people should know: the classic and beautiful “Warmth of the Sun” by the Beach Boys, written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love.  The story goes that both Brian and Mike were together the night that President John F. Kennedy passed away.  It must’ve been quite a night in America- I can only imagine it.  But, in songwriters’ darkest hours come some great material.  Most of the great songs you hear are a result of heartache- it’s usually due to losing a loved one.  But, Brian Wilson and Mike Love of the Beach Boys were creative in their songwriting and made their feellings for the passing of their President known in song.  Sure, they tailored it into a love-lost song (“The love of my life, she left me one day…”), but you can tell the sentiment in the song, especially considering the night they wrote it.

“The Warmth of the Sun” is a beautiful song in all ways- the chord changes are just great.  Brian Wilson always had a knack at creating chord progressions that were familiar, but had a great twist.  The bass line always moves in the opposite direction of where you expect it to go.  In addition to great music (and the instrumental track, which I’m pretty sure was played by the Beach Boys band members themselves), this song has AMAZING harmonies.  Brian Wilson’s voice simply soars in this song.  With the addition of the dead-on background vocals, you’ve got a pretty perfect song.  I’m just glad I found a way to put a solo acoustic performance together and record it with just an acoustic guitar for a cover song music video.

This video is fulfilling a request I received in my first week of doing the Laptop Sessions. I waited until now because I knew I had to get this one right. I had to practice the chords (not too easy, and this is my own interpretation- I didn’t even use a book), plus get the intricate tune correct. There’s so many subtleties to this tune and NO ONE was writing pop music like this in 1963. Talk about ahead of their time.

Please visit my website at http://jimfusco.com for more great music–original songs! One of the main ideas behind doing all of these cover songs for the Laptop Sessions is that if you like the style of music that I do live performances of, you’ll also love my original music, too!  I really think that’s true- my original songs aren’t just throwbacks or anything like that.  They’re unique songs that put a modern twist on my favorite influences, including The Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Beatles, and the Moody Blues.  I hope you enjoy tonight’s Beach Boys cover song and I hope you’ll stay tuned for more.  Make sure to follow me on Twitter @jimfuscomusic so you always know the latest on my songwriting endeavors, too!

“Night Time” (Brian Wilson Cover)

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Tonight’s Laptop Session is a song from Brian Wilson’s 1988 solo album, aptly titled, “Brian Wilson”! I saw a YouTube video of him playing this on Letterman in 1988, and hearing the overproduced “80s” sound made me want to give it the Laptop Sessions treatment, as I did with Brian’s song “I’m So Lonely” (from the Beach Boys 1985 album).

No, this isn’t one of Brian’s greatest songs, but I think a lot of people write it off because its production, and not necessarily because of the quality of the song. But again, that’s one of the big reasons why I’m doing the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs series.  I don’t think songs should be ignored because of the time-period of which they were produced.  Giving a song a fresh sound, done in a solo liver performance on acoustic guitar will allow people to hear the song and not just the recording.

“Night Time” is one of those songs from Brian Wilson’s first solo album that his therapist (who called himself “producer” at the time) Eugene Landy said he had a hand in writing.  I’m not sure about that, but from everything I can gather, Brian was still in a pretty fragile mental state.  It was only a year earlier that he was passed-over (or declined, depending on who you ask) to work on the Beach Boys #1 hit single, “Kokomo”.  I can only imagine “Kokomo” with Brian’s voice in there.  It would’ve been great.  Of course, I’m glad they ended up giving Carl Wilson a chance to shine on the “That’s where we wanna go…” line.  So, I guess it wasn’t all bad that Brian wasn’t a part of “Kokomo”.

Brian Wilson’s first solo album was critically acclaimed.  It really has some great songs on it.  All of them have an incredibly polished late-80s sound to it.  Though, it does sound like a Brian Wilson production.  It almost sounds like an updated “Love You” album with better synthesizers.  Fans of “Love You” will remember that it was a fairly revolutionary album at the time because of the synthesized keyboards Brian Wilson used throughout.  I, for one, could do without them- it would make the album sound less dated today.  But then again, it also gives me the opportunity to record a bunch of Beach Boys and Brian Wilson cover songs for you!  Therefore, the synthesizer, and all 80s music, seems to be my friend.

I think it’ll be a treat for hardcore Brian Wilson fans out there, too, who probably already like “Night Time” and the entire “Brian Wilson” album.  If you haven’t heard “Night Time” before, I really hope you’re in for a treat.  Enjoy tonight’s Laptop Sessions Brian Wilson cover song!

“And Then I Kissed Her” (Beach Boys Cover)

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By Jim Fusco

Here’s a great Beach Boys cover song originally done by The Crystals as “And Then He Kissed Me”. Brian Wilson loves Phil Spector’s music and re-did this tune (with Al Jardine on great lead vocals) with a Beach Boys touch. Of course, my version is stripped-down and it’s just me, but it’s a fun song to play and I think it sort of represents my project. Brian Wilson covered a song from his idol, and I cover songs from my favorite musicians here on the Laptop Sessions!

In 2013, Brian Wilson toured with Al Jardine and Al sang this song in concert.  You wouldn’t believe it, but Al (in his 70s) still sings this song great!  His voice is largely unchanged and he sings and plays it just like he did in the 60s.  It’s great to see him out there with his white Fender Stratocaster, just like he did so many years ago.  It’s actually a stark contrast from Brian Wilson himself.  I guess it just goes to show you that if you take care of yourself, you’ll still look and sound great later in life.  Paul McCartney seems to be that way, as does Ringo Starr.  But, guys like Ozzy Osbourne and Keith Richards choce the rockstar lifestyle back in the day.  Sure, they lived it up, but you can only stay that way for so long.  Their talent is still there, but it’s masked under a cloud of slurred speech and horribly wrinkled skin!

One thing about the Beach Boys is that they always did amazing cover songs.  From “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?” to “Cottonfields” and beyond, they always took songs and gave it the Beach Boys’ treatment.  Take “Sloop John B”, for example.  That was an old traditional song that Al Jardine brought to Brian Wilson’s attention.  Brian turned it into a pop song and it became a Top 5 hit!  The Beach Boys also had a Top 5 hit with their cover of Chuck Berry’s “Rock’n’roll Music” in the 70s, though that version isn’t too far of a departure from the original version back in the 50s.  Later on in the 80s, the Beach Boys collaborated with Roger McGuinn (formerly of the Byrds) to do a cover of the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin'”.  That version is a lot different from the original, mostly because of McGuinn’s amazing 12-string electric guitar (Rickenbacker) playing throughout.

So, sit back, relax, and watch my cover song version of the Beach Boys’ “And Then I Kissed Her” here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog.  I hope you enjoy and stay tuned for more!

NOTE: This video from 2007 has been remastered in 2020 for enhanced video and sound.