Tag Archives: carl wilson

“You’re So Good To Me” (Beach Boys Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello all, and welcome to your weekend edition of The Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog with me, Jim Fusco. After two strong outings from Jeff and Chris, I decided to pull my ace-in-the-hole and do a Beach Boys song.  I always have good luck doing a Beach Boys cover song, as growing up, I would constantly sing these while in the car.  After a while, I think my voice just grew into the Beach Boys tone, so I’m able to bring you fairly accurate cover song videos here on the music blog!

This is an earlier Beach Boys song that doesn’t have way too much emphasis on the background vocals, so it was a nice transition into Laptop Sessions form.  Normally, I like to take more produced songs and turn them into cover song videos, but tonight, I’m taking a lesser-known song and bringing it to the public’s attention again.

I love the way Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys sings this song. It’s like he’s semi-screaming it at some points, but he’s singing about how someone is “so good” to him! I think this might have been an attempt to sound a bit more “macho” on Brian’s part, and if I were in his shoes, I would completely understand.  Of course, I think the “macho” aspect goes away on the falsetto, “And I love it, LOVE it!” line.  That’s okay, though, as it’s my favorite part of the song.  I’ve noticed lately that one of Brian Wilson’s strengths as a songwriter (and there are many) is his ability to write a great bridge.  Those catchy transition periods between the verses and choruses are usually my favorite parts of a song.  I’ve been putting a lot of focus on them in my original songs, as well.  For instance, in “Good Enough” off of my album, “Those Around Us”, I love the way the bridge came out.  It features really cool harmonies and a catchy tune.  Plus, I like the line, “And now my heart is hardened like a heart of gold.”

I hope everyone likes this one, even though it doesn’t have my favorite Mike Love low part in there. Gotta get Chris to stop correcting high school English papers one of these nights and do some more collaborations!  Actually, this cover song video doesn’t feature any of the background vocals.  The “la-la-la” part in the chorus can be considered annoying by some people.  In fact, it took away from my love of the song until just recently.  I guess it grew on me.  But, here I give you a version with no background vocals for the acoustic cover songs music video blog so you can hear just what a great little song “You’re So Good To Me” is!

See you Tuesday with another Session, but stay tuned for Chris and Jeff’s entries over the next two days! Haven’t missed a day in ’08!

“Surfer Girl” (Beach Boys Cover)

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Welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions!

Tonight, I give you one of the Beach Boys’ greatest and most famous songs, “Surfer Girl”!

Of course, the Boys’ version has those great harmonies, but imagine this version as if Brian Wilson was the only one singing. Plus, it’s fun to sing the harmony parts while listening back to it.

I love the chords- those old-fashioned chords that rock music just doesn’t have anymore. It was fun to learn and Chris and I have been playing this for months.

Actually, I love playing this on Chris’ Fender electric, but I think it translates well on the nylon strings.

Hopefully I do this song justice because playing a huge hit like this always means there’s pretty big expectations. Enjoy and stay tuned as the “Laptop Session a day” in 2008 rolls on!

“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.

“Somewhere Near Japan” (Beach Boys Cover)

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Okay, request time here at The Laptop Sessions! This one’s going out to Peter (aka thebeachboys on YouTube).

This is one of my favorites and I thought no one else really ever paid any attention to it. “Somewhere Near Japan”, written by Mike Love and Terry Melcher, is one of the only saving graces on the 1988 EP/album “Still Cruisin”.  Actually, I like the album a lot, but it’s not really a full album.  There are a few old Beach Boys songs tacked onto the end of the album because they were “featured” in movies out at the time.  And, you can pretty much throw away the Fat Boys’ version of “Wipeout” which featured Brian Wilson singing the backing vocals.  It’s nice to hear Brian in there, but honestly, why did that song end up on a Beach Boys album anyway?  You’ve also got “Kokomo”.  Love it or hate it, it’s one of the biggest songs they ever did.  So, the album had some notoriety behind it.  Songs like “Still Cruisin'” are just fun songs to me, and the Beach Boys even played that song during their 2012 tour!  Personally, I really like the songs “Make It Big” and “Island Girl”, especially because they feature Carl Wilson and Al Jardine, respectively.

Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, and Bruce Johnston are all featured on lead at some point on “Somewhere Near Japan” (ala “Add Some Music” from the Beach Boys’ 1970 classic album, Sunflower) and I think that always added to my enjoyment of the song.  I’ll admit it- when Terry Melcher and Mike Love wanted to write a good song, they really hit it on the nose.  Think of the classic song “Gethca Back” from the Beach Boys 1985 album.  Even a couple years after the Still Cruisin’ album on 1992’s “Summer In Paradise”, Melcher and Love wrote a few great songs.  Now THAT is an album that doesn’t get any respect.  I think songs like “Island Fever”, “Lahaina Aloha”, and “Strange Things Happen” are really great songs.

Tonight’s acoustic cover song music video is one of those “let’s hear how it sounds stripped-down” versions. The late-80s production might have turned some people off to this Beach Boys song, but I think the song stands up great on it own!   So, these 80s/90s Beach Boys songs may have cheesy lyrics now and again (and that 1992 drum machine is pretty bad).  But, that’s one of the reasons why I record cover song videos here on the music blog.  I’d like to think that I’m pretty good at spotting a good song, even if it’s hidden underneath terrible production and synth instruments.  And, with that ability, I strip all of that stuff away to give you an acoustic-guitar-driven version.  I hope these videos open people to songs they otherwise wouldn’t listen to.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s cover video, and keep those requests coming! I’m doing a new music video every two days this year. If you request something, please be patient, but we’re always here to please at The Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!