Tag Archives: christmas

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

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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!

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“Last Christmas” (Wham! cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your Tuesday edition of the Laptop Sessions!  I love feeling productive, and even though I have a TON of work to do over the next few days (that is, AFTER a full day of work, in addition) I’ve been getting a lot done, so I’m in a good mood.  I hope to completely clear my “after-work” schedule after this week so I can focus on having some Christmas fun!

Tonight, I kick off my Christmas song selection for this year with “Last Christmas” by the band Wham!  No, I wasn’t excited there at the end of that sentence- the band’s name actually has an exclamation point in it!  (For the record, in that last sentence, I really DID want to use an exclaimation point! 🙂 )

I heard this song on XM Radio a couple years ago and remembered this tune.  Of course, you’ll hear the terrible 80s sound that goes along with it, but I kinda like that sound…probably because it’s the sounds that were popular when I was very young.

Keeping with my success of the Beach Boys’ “I’m So Lonely” video, I think this video may become pretty popular.  Why?  Because the Laptop Sessions has three goals: to do songs in the RIGHT KEY, to put an end to bad YouTube videos forever, and to strip down songs to their core and turn them into acoustic performances.  In cases like this and “I’m So Lonely”, I took out the cheesy, dated production and performed the song in its purest form.  I think people that have previously written this song off will come to like it after my performance!

This is the first in a series of Christmas songs to come this year, mixed in with my normal acoustic covers.  I can’t believe we’re in the last month of our “session a day” project.  I sincerely hope that Chris can contact some sort of news outlet (or the Guinness book) to report on this amazing accomplishment.  I’m certain that it’s unprecedented!

Enjoy tonight’s video, as Christmas time is in full swing.  Again, I hope I can start enjoying it more in a few days, and I’m sure my post length will reflect that when things slow down and I have more time to myself.  Okay, off to bed now. 

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Ranking every Beach Boys song/album: The Beach Boys Christmas Album (by Songwriter Jim Fusco)

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By Jim Fusco:

BEACH BOYS CHRISTMAS ALBUM:

We Three Kings of Orient Are – 9.5
*Little Saint Nick (single) – 10
Little Saint Nick (album) – 9.5
*Our Father – 5
*Auld Lang Syne (alternate) – 5
Santa’s Beard – 7 (LOVE the chord progression and the combination of Mike’s low part and Brian’s high part on “He wants to meet old Santa Claus”)
Christmas Day – 6
I’ll Be Home for Christmas – 7 (I consider this the standard for this song)
The Man with All the Toys – 7.5 (The same reason why I like this song is the reason why it gets docked some points. It has this “dark” sound to it that kinda doesn’t sound very Christmas-song like. However, I like the darker sound because I love those dark Christmastime nights)
Blue Christmas – 6.5
White Christmas – 6
*Little Saint Nick (alternate) – 6.5
Merry Christmas, Baby – 7
Santa Claus is Coming to Town – 5
Frosty the Snowman – 5
Auld Lang Syne – 4 (They couldn’t have done ONE more take to let Dennis have another chance?)

** This is one of my favorite albums. That doesn’t mean it’s the best by any means, but this always makes me SO happy. I have 200 Christmas songs and know how to play most of them. I love Christmas and everything that goes with it. This album contains songs that make me SO happy every time I listen to them, that it automatically brings back memories. I love Elvis’ first Christmas album because of that, too. Something about that innocence and that late ’50s, early ’60s Christmas time vibe… I’ll never live in that kind of world. I’ll never get to experience that, seeing as I grew up in the ’90s (and still growing, in fact, at 23). I hope to give my future children Christmases like that, and that’s why every note on this album is like gold to me. I listen to it about 50 times a year- more than any other album. I know the songs aren’t perfect and the recording sounds a bit rushed, at best. But, they’re voices are at top-notch form here. Classic. **

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Video Blog 2008: The future of Fusco-Moore Productions’ songwriters!

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By Chris Moore:

Hi all. I became lax in my posting during December, so I wanted to start 2008 off right! Now, I don’t have a Laptop Session to post today, but I do have a rant, two hot-off-the-press updates, and some thoughts on the new year. So, here goes…

First, I need to thank all those who came to the second annual MoU Christmas Party this weekend. I really appreciate those of you who said they would be there and actually came. Unfortunately, we had a great deal of people — almost a third of our “confirmed” guest list — who didn’t show and who gave little to no warning. This year, it was especially important to have an accurate count so that Jim would know how much food to make. Instead, we ended up with two thirds of the ziti back in our fridge… Let’s just say I can predict what Jim will be cooking for dinner for the next two and a half weeks! Seriously though, especially since I was the one who took on the task of inviting people, setting up the facebook page, etc., it felt like a big failure. Everyone seemed to have a good time, but the band fund lost $80 in the process rather than making money for our second album, Homestead’s Revenge. It was pretty depressing looking out into the sea of… 24 faces. But, to those 24 who did attend, I want to thank you once again!

Okay, the two updates, as promised:

1) The MoU album – I’m still running this by the other band members, but at this time Homestead’s Revenge was planned for release as a digital download on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008. It’s about freakin’ time!

2) My essay collection – I’ll be releasing a collection of my essays (academic and otherwise) from 2003-2008 on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008. The collection (which, as a warning, is really only for die-hard essay / Chris Moore fans!) will include essays on relationships, society in general, poetry, and music. It will be released as an e-book and is tentatively titled “Essays” and Other Essays.

Finally, my thoughts on the new year. 2007 was okay, but I felt I was not very productive overall. I think Jim felt the same way — as he said to me the other day, he’s been without a solo album for over two years. I think he’s getting the itch again… That being said, my goal for Fusco-Moore Productions in the new year is to build on the audience of the Laptop Sessions, release some music (perhaps the long-awaited “Fusco and Moore-funkel” album!), and release the short story/poetry book that I’ve been working on for over a year. I really feel like this is a make it or break it year for F-M Prod, and I think both Jim and I are feeling the pressure to really make something of this while we can.

As always, thanks for reading — this is certainly the most I’ve ever written here at one time. Best of wishes from Fusco-Moore for 2008 — keep checking back for new laptop sessions and more all the time!

-Chris Moore

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