Jim Fusco’s Rock’n’Roll Christmas LIVE on December 5th, 2015!

By Jim Fusco:

Hello Laptop Sessions fans and happy holidays.

I’m performing LIVE on Saturday, December 5th at 4:00pm at Christmas In the Village, a yearly festival in South Meriden, CT that’s totally FREE!  That means free parking, free food, and free entertainment!  It’s a great day for the whole family.

I’ll be performing all of my favorite rock’n’roll Christmas songs starting at 4:00pm.

For more details, please visit Christmas in the Village’s Facebook page by clicking here!

If you live in CT, I’d love to see you there!

Christmas Albums and Songs Are Almost Here- A Complete Rundown of My Favorites

By Jim Fusco:

I love traditions.  If there’s one thing you must learn about me, it’s that.  I get unreasonably upset when someone tries to break my time-honored traditions.  So, every year, I painfully wait until the day after Thanksgiving to listen to Christmas music.  And, if you must learn a second thing about me, it’s that I LOVE Christmas music.  Christmas songs are synonymous with family traditions.  And here, I will give you a good rundown of all my favorite Christmas albums and songs, plus a little section on why I love Christmas music so much.

How Can Someone Love Christmas Music So Much?

Many people I talk to really don’t like Christmas music all that much, especially around December 26th.  But, I have a few reasons why I love it so much.  First, I make sure that I do not listen to any Christmas songs at all before the day after Thanksgiving.  Why?  Because it’s more special that way.  I don’t get sick of Christmas music because I refuse to get into the spirit too early (like in October, as you see in all the malls).  So, when the day after Thanksgiving comes and I get up super-early for those amazing sales, I’m all too giddy to play my first Christmas song of the season.  And by January 1st, I’m usually pretty bummed about the fact that I have to wait another 11 months to hear my favorite tunes again.

Another thing I love about Christmas music: for the most part, they’re all happy!  And even if they’re not happy (like Nat King Cole’s “The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot”), they have hope.  After listing to that song, I can only imagine that the “little boy”‘s mother re-marries and that boy has some happy Christmases ahead.  I really don’t like sad songs.  I mean, when I listen to music, I want to feel good.  Give me a song about keeping the summer alive and a good guitar solo and I’m a happy person.  And the innocence that you hear when the Beach Boys sing on their Christmas album- no drugs, no craziness, just kids singing and playing some really joyful tunes.  You can’t listen to “The Beach Boys Christmas Album” without a smile on your face.

Christmas music is also timeless.  It’s the one genre of music that crosses all style and age boundaries.  You’ll hear teenagers singing to Elvis’ “Blue Christmas” and you’ll hear my parents rocking-out to “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band-Aid.  What a season…

So, now you have some insight as to why I love Christmas music so much.  But, you may be wondering- with all the Christmas albums and songs out there, what’s any good?  Well, I’m taking a big leap here and making a Top 10 list of each of my favorite Christmas songs and Christmas-themed albums.  It’s going to be tough, but here it goes:

Jim Fusco’s Top 10 Christmas Songs:

  1. The Little Saint Nick- The Beach Boys: Even though I love the song at #2, this classic Beach Boys tune gets the top prize.  It even won “Best Original Christmas Song” on our radio station, WCJM.  The tune to this song is great, the harmonies are tight, and Mike Love’s vocals are spot-on.  The instrumentation is sparse (it’s actually the Beach Boys playing the instruments), but that makes me love it more- it’s truly a band effort.  And, I have inside information proving that Brian actually wrote the lyrics!
  2. Santa Claus Is Back In Town- Elvis Presley: Hands-down, this is the coolest Christmas song ever.  Over 50 years later, and this song still rocks.  The groove, Elvis’ lead, the Jordanaires backing vocals, and that amazing piano solo prove that this song was ahead of its time.  This is not only one of my favorite Christmas songs, but one of my favorite all-around songs, as well.
  3. Baby Please Come Home- Darlene Love: The Phil Spector Christmas Album (“A Christmas Gift For You”) is an amazing album, as you’ll see it in my Top 10 list of best Christmas albums below.  I love many of the songs on that record, but the final song, “Baby Please Come Home”, just wraps it all up (no pun intended).  Darlene’s soaring vocals and that classic Spector production give me chills every time I hear it.
  4. Don’t Need A Reindeer- The Moody Blues: I know, you’ve never heard of this song.  But, trust me- you’re missing out.  Off of their Christmas album from just a few years ago, this song has everything I love: a great tune, a good beat, great vocals, and a happy message.  Please, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of this song!
  5. Merry Christmas Darling- The Carpenters: Most people who know my musical tastes know that I’m not the biggest fan of female singers.  But, you’ll notice that there are three songs sung by women on this list!  And, again, that’s what makes Christmas music so amazing- it crosses all boundaries of musical styles.  In this case, I LOVE Karen Carpenter’s voice.  She doesn’t do too much.  The chords are great in this song, too.  Why isn’t it #1?  One word: “Christmas-ing”.
  6. Elf’s Lament- Barenaked Ladies: Okay, I’ll admit that I wanted to put “Footprints” here, but that’s a sad song, albeit great.  Anyway, “Elf’s Lament” is such a fun song and gets you in the spirit very quickly.
  7. On Christmas Day- Brian Wilson: I can’t tell you why I love this song so much.  But, it’s just got a great tune, great vocals, and interesting chord changes.  Brian sounds so young in this recording, even though he was in his mid-sixties.  I wonder if anyone else notices the striking similarities between this song and “Bells of Paris” from M.I.U.?
  8. Winter Holidays- America: Dewey Bunnell has such a gift of combining crazy inversions of chords and coming up with some off-beat songs.  This Christmas tune is a not only a nice song, but gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling at the same time.
  9. Hey Santa!- Carnie & Wendy Wilson: Why is this song on the list?  Well, the late-80’s cameo by Carl Wilson was certainly a factor.  The ending of this song is so great.  This is another example of women who don’t do too much with their vocals- they just sing the song.  And even though this song gets a bad rep, you still gotta admit it’s a catchy tune.
  10. Run Rudolph Run- Chuck Berry: I don’t so much love this recording (Chuck sounds like he’s really phoning-it-in on this record), but I love the song.  It’s classic Chuck Berry style and has some pretty nifty guitar work going on.  I really started loving this song once we played it in concert and I got to do the nifty guitar work!

Jim Fusco’s Top 10 Christmas Albums of All Time:

  1. Elvis Presley’s Christmas Album (1957- recorded in two days and only 6 songs, but man, this album rules)
  2. The Beach Boys Christmas Album (everything from Al’s first lead vocal to Brian’s first solo performance)
  3. A Christmas Gift For You from Phil Spector
  4. Holiday Harmony- America
  5. Barenaked For the Holidays- Barenaked Ladies
  6. December- The Moody Blues
  7. What I Really Want for Christmas- Brian Wilson
  8. Our Christmas Gift To You- Chris, Jim, and Mike (that’s US!)
  9. What’s It Gonna Be, Santa?- Chicago
  10. I Wanna Be Santa Claus- Ringo Starr

I hope you’ve enjoyed my commentary and my lists.  I hope to edit these as the holiday season goes on- remember, I’m doing this from memory, as I haven’t listened to any Christmas music yet this year!  So, I’ll update the post as I see fit.  Who knows, maybe Dylan’s new Christmas album will make the list!  Yeah, and I hear Elvis is coming back to life this year, too… 🙂

“Run Rudolph Run” (Chuck Berry Christmas Song Cover)

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!