“You Showed Me” (The Turtles cover)

By Jim Fusco:

Tuesday…what a day.  Not enough to be mid-week, and not far enough away from the past weekend to let you forget about it.  At least Chris got the day off today, so he texted me updates on his (nothing) day every half hour.  If only I didn’t only have 200 texts a month…and if only Chris were home every day.

Onto tonight’s video- actually posted before midnight for once!

I told you that you’d get a twin-spin with The Turtles, and here it is.  “You Showed Me” is a song I’ve known for most of my 24 years, hearing it on the oldies radio station 102.9 “Big D 103” here in Connecticut.  But I got to revisit the song after my family and I got into the Byrds.  We listened to every single released (and unreleased, for that matter) Byrds song and loved every minute…except for David Crosby’s “Mind Garden”, my vote for the ABSOLUTE worst song of all time.  Go ahead- go search for it and tell me it isn’t.  I dare you.

So, how do the Byrds fit in here?  Well, we came across this song again on the Byrds “Preflyte” sessions box set, which is awesome, by the way.  It’s a collection of all of their songs before they ever recorded their first album with Columbia Records.  It’s a great collection, especially because the band wrote most of the songs.  The lead singer and songwriter at that time was Gene Clark.  He wrote some of the world’s best songs and it’s been a pleasure to cover his songs on multiple occasions here on the best music video blog on the internet!

Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn (Jim at the time) of the Byrds wrote “You Showed Me”.  They recorded mutliple versions of this song with the Byrds during the “Preflyte” sessions, but the song never showed up on an official Byrds album.  Instead, they gave it (or maybe Columbia gave it- I’ll have to check that out) to The Turtles to turn into a HUGE hit.  Well, I’m glad it became a hit either way and it’s just another example of Gene Clark’s amazing songwriting abilities.  It makes it all the more sad that he barely ever got recognition for it.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s video, as I gear up for yet another “new” band to the Laptop Sessions on Friday.  Which one?  Well, let me give you a hint.  This man was (and I think may actually be getting back) with one of the most famous “stoner” bands of all time.  You know, ridiculously long concerts, etc.  Which band?  Which man?  You’ll just have to wait until Friday to find out!  Thankfully we have Chris and Jeff posting their great videos in between to tide us over!  See you then.

More Laptop Sessions covers

“Man On The Moon” (REM Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Here’s another awesome session for you.  This is a song from REM called “Man on the Moon”.  I’ve covered two songs from this band in the past, and this will make it a hat trick.

This song is from one of my favorite albums by REM called “Automatic for the People”.  This song is a great song that is a tribute to Andy Kaufman.

And, it’s just a coincidence that I had planned on covering REM and Chris had made a REM pun yesterday.  And to think, I’d have to come up with something creative in the pun department…

…maybe next post.  It’s too late for me.

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!

More Laptop Sessions covers

“Happy Together” (The Turtles Cover)

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another edition of “You Bet Your Life”…oh wait, that’s Groucho Marx.  This here is another edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!

I don’t care what anyone says- I’m actually a big fan of my newest song, “Winning You Over”.  I know the subject matter is up for debate, but if you just listen to it as a song: the tune and the way the lyrics are written, even the chord progression- I think you’ll find that it’s pretty awesome.  Not to toot my own horn- I just can’t get the stinkin’ song out of my head!

I’d love to hear Jeff’s thoughts on the song- both in subject matter and how he likes the real tune.  This is a great chance to make sure Jeff is still paying attention to these posts! 🙂

Anyway, tonight I bring you a great and classic song by The Turtles, whom we haven’t covered yet here on the Laptop Sessions.  That’s the way it goes: another night, another “new” band to the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog from me, Jim Fusco!

Of course, I put “new” in quotations because the band was popular back in the sixties, so even though we haven’t done a cover song from them before, it’s still technically not a “new” band by any stretch of the imagination!

I couldn’t believe how well the opening guitar part came out- doesn’t it sound exactly like the original?

Well, I actually have a little game for you.  On my solo radio show (So-low that you can’t hear me?  That’s for Stuffy D. Bear) Jammin’ with Jim on WCJM Free Internet Radio, I’m “famous” for my twin-spins, which are two songs played by the same artist.  I even did an entire show of twin-spins…twice!

I’ve also done a second song from the Turtles (a twin-spin!).  To tell you the truth, I didn’t even realize that I was doing two songs by them until after I recorded the music videos!  I recorded both songs and went, “Huh- they’re both from the Turtles!”  So, I have a nice twin-spin setup for you.  Can you guess which song it’ll be?  BIG points to the winner of this competition.  Again, this will be a good litmus test to tell if Jeff is still reading these posts!

Okay- it’s been a long day and I can’t wait to kick back and relax to yet another Chris Moore acoustic cover song music video tomorrow.  I’m sure he’ll do Sunday proud.

More Laptop Sessions covers

“Your Love” (The Outfield Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to a fun Friday edition of the Sessions.  I’ve got a song going out by request of Ninja Don.  And we can all thank him that a new band has arrived to our long list of videos.

Before I write my “official” post, I just want to pause to reflect on what we have accomplished this year.  Between the three of us, we have nearly 250,000 views on Youtube, our site visits continue to get more frequent, and all three of us have some notoriety (be it positive or negative) in our respective workplaces, neighborhoods, and with our friends.  Between the three of us, we have over 300 videos (perhaps over 400, but over 300 from this year alone) that continue to attract viewers to the site.  But as Jim mentioned in a earlier post, I look forward to the time next year when our day to post will be a complete enjoyment, rather than a “I have to get my video up because it’s my day to do so” event.

Well, anyway, I’ve got a song that was a hit in 1985, reaching 6 on the Billboard charts.  This song is from a British Pop/Rock band called The Outfield.  Their 1985 album was called “Play Deep”, and the song I am covering is called “Your Love”.  As mentioned, this song is going out by request, because at some point every morning during 1st Period Prep, Don just has to break this tune out.

I just hope he doesn’t start breaking out MY version instead.

Well, if he did, then that means he likes it.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really like to talk politics all that much.  I, however, have been following the ongoing discussion that is taking place on Jim’s video from Wednesday.  I am not going to offer my thoughts or feelings on it simply because that’s not a good topic of conversation for me.  However, that being said, I am very hopeful that the President-elect will live up to his billing – both from him and his supporters.

I hope that you enjoy today’s cover song.

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!

More Laptop Sessions covers