By Jim Fusco:

Hello and welcome to Day 12 of Jim Fusco’s 14 Days of Rock’n’Roll Christmas 2015!  Only a couple songs left, but I’ve saved some good ones for last!

Tonight is my cover of Chuck Berry’s Christmas song, ‘Run Rudolph Run”.  What a guitar player Berry is.  The opening and solo to this song are both very difficult.  They’re not necessarily difficult scales to play, but he plays them so smoothly and with those harmonies.  I guess he was talking about himself when he said, “He could play the guitar just like ringin’ a bell.”

This song is also in a higher register (for singing) than it would appear.  I’m used to singing this live and really letting loose, but in a studio setting, it was a bit harder to get the energy needed without messing up the recording levels.  So, I opted to stand a bit further away from the microphone and sang with more passion, even though the notes might not be 100% right all the time.  It didn’t sound right singing it too “sweetly’.

Okay, come back tomorrow for the penultimate release in my Christmas series.  Don’t forget to download each song you can listen every year!