Tag Archives: cover song

“Teenager In Love” (Dion & The Belmonts cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Oh yeah, another Jim Fusco night and ANOTHER “new” band to the Laptop Sessions!  Incredible.  It’s almost hard to believe we haven’t done a song from a band starting with every letter in the alphabet.  I think we haven’t done Q yet…

I tell you, I have to do more songs from Dion.  He had some amazing hits and he was pretty prolific with them, too.  This song is a classic 4-chord doo-wop style number.  Even though the song was that “easy” to play, I still found myself doing take after take to get the inflection of the words right.  Plus, I play an “F” chord so much like a “C” chord, I was actually switching between the two accidentally!

But, practice made perfect and I got through the video without too much more trouble.  This is another one of my fading-out songs, as the single version of the original song is just a perfect recording and I wanted my video to reflect the same.  The way Dion sings with such youthfulness and the way the Belmonts give those great supporting vocals makes for a timeless single.

And hasn’t EVERYONE felt this way in the past?  Chris and I have had countless conversations on this topic, asking why we would even do this to ourselves in the first place.  The answer?  Because it made life interesting, which is a theme through many of my early songs.

Even though I’m not a teenager now (and incredibly surprised that it’s been five years SINCE I’ve been one!), I could still channel the sentiment in this song.  I don’t think Dion had that in mind when he recorded this number, but I think every time someone who was a teenager back when the song was released hears it again, it takes them right back.  That could be a scary thing, but any three minute song that can do that is more than just a four-chord song- it’s a classic.

Enjoy the video!

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“San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)” (Scott McKenzie Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

And the winner, yet again, is Jim Fusco!!!  (AHHH, Jiiiiimmmm Fuscooooo, AHHHH, undefeated champion of the world, AHHHH)

What am I the winner of?  Well, the song with the LONGEST title ever on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!

“San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)” is a great tune that symbolized the Summer of Love in 1967.  The song was written by Scott McKenzie’s friend John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas.  McKenzie was slated to form the band with Phillips earlier, but then decided to be a solo artist.  Well, McKenzie is the true definition of a “One Hit Wonder”, as this song reached the Top 10 and that was his only big hit.

Chris said to me, “I konw the song, but I’ve never even heard of Scott McKenzie!”  Well, he doesn’t realize it, but he has.

The classic Number 1 hit for the Beach Boys in 1987, “Kokomo”, was actually written by the following: Mike Love, Terry Melcher, John Phillips, and…Scott McKenzie!  I don’t know what hand he actually had in it, but it’s funny to learn of the connection.  That song became a hit a solid 20 years after he hit it big with his only well-known song…and it was a song he didn’t even write!  I’m sure McKenzie is still seeing royalties from “Kokomo”.

I came up with a big project that I call “The Cover Songs Initiative” today that outlines the progress I’d like to see this site make, along with the steps to get there. 

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“Zombie” (Cranberries Cover

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Good (late) evening to you!  It’s Jeff tonight posting (a bit late) with another…yes, another!…brand new band to the Sessions.  Lately all 3 of us have been on an unofficial New Bands 3.0 binge.

Tonight’s new band is The Cranberries, an Irish band (with another female lead singer – score another one for the Jeffster) and a song from their debut album (deep breath) “Everyone Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?”  That is the last time I write that album title by the way.

This album produced quite a few successful singles including the song covered tonight.  The song is “Zombie”, which as far as song difficulty goes this is probably the easiest of all the songs I’ve covered to play.  The challenge was singing like Dolores O’Riordan who has multiple octave range.  I decided to sing the verses in key, but drop an octave to sing the chorus parts.  It allowed me to get a little more emotional with the song as well.

I would’ve posted earlier but our Sunday Nyzul Isle runs failed miserably – not because we didn’t succeed, but in 4 boss fights we won all 4, but were awarded absolutely nothing in drops.  Oh well, there’s always next week.

I hope you enjoy today’s cover!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

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“Shine” (Trey Anastasio Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hey HEY!  Welcome to your Friday night Laptop Sessions fix here with me, Jim Fusco!  I simply can’t believe it’s my night again…  Now, I’m going to be going away this weekend for another overnight trip.  The last time I did that, the entire Laptop Sessions site (not to mention all my other ones) went down for three days!  We lost all of our Google rankings- it was a mess.  So, I’ve invested time and money to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, and I pray for 36 hours without my computer and a site that still works when I get back.  Cross your fingers!

Tonight is another new night, and I’m bringing you yet ANOTHER new band!  Do I ever run out of these things?

I challenge the other three guys on here to do a song from Trey Anastasio’s band “Phish”, as I’ve taken a song from his solo career after the band originally broke up.  I got into this band via a friend of mine who was a big Phish phan…I mean, fan.  The album (also called “Shine”) was new at the time and was Trey’s second solo studio album.  I instanly fell in love with it.  The songs are very accessible and they trim out the minutes upon minutes of jam-band soloing that was so popular in Phish’s work.

I’m more of the three minute song kinda guy, and the album “Shine” delivers just that: three minute pop gems from a guy with amazing guitar skills, a great hand at songwriting, and the classic too-much-drugs-over-my-career wobbly voice.  The album isn’t perfect by any means, but there are just some great songs up and down the boards that I truly enjoyed for an extended play in my car’s rotation.

My band, “Masters of the Universe” covered this song in concert and we used to kick some rear.  We had five part harmonies going on the chorus and the song really rocked.  I believe it’s on our first DVD.

I’m looking forward to my trip tomorrow.  Maybe I can do some mobile blogging on my iPhone!  Then you can experience scenic Lenox, MA, too.  Have a great weekend and enjoy the acoustic cover song music video!

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