Tag Archives: cover song

“Bethlehem” by Jim Fusco – FREE mp3 Download! – Day 9 of 14

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By Jim Fusco:

It’s Day 9 here on the 14 Days of Rock’n’Roll Christmas 2015 on the Laptop Sessions music blog!  Tonight, I bring you a song that you probably haven’t heard of before. But, that’s okay- as George Carlin said, “When are gonna write some more Christmas songs?”

Today’s song is “Bethlehem”, originally done by the band Chicago.  They actually came out with three Christmas albums!  I guess they really got into putting that “Chicago sound” onto the holiday classics.  But, there were a couple of originals and “Bethlehem” is a really cool tune.  It has an interesting beat and some difficult chord changes.  The chords themselves are easy ones, but they change very quickly.

The overall sound was a difficult one to get down.  My version doesn’t sound exactly like the original, but then again, you haven’t heard the original, so who’s to call me on it? 🙂

I hope you like this song- give it a chance!  It’s free to download, so it’s not taking much of a chance.  Day 10 is next in the series!

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“The Man With All The Toys” by Jim Fusco – FREE mp3 Download! – Day 8 of 14

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello everyone!  We begin week number two of free Christmas songs with another favorite of mine: “The Man With All The Toys” by the Beach Boys.  It sounds like a simple song on the surface, but there are some cool changes that Brian Wilson created for the chords.  The vocals, especially the cool “low harmonies” on the bridges, are difficult and really cool.

I tried to stay as close as possible to the original with the instruments, too.  I used my Fender Stratocaster on the neck pickup, just like Carl and Al did on the original recording.  For the lead guitar part, I actually had to re-record it because I didn’t originally put the echo effect on it, like the original had.  I also ended up recording two bass lines with slightly different sounds.  If you listen on headphones, you can hear one in each ear.  I never knew that there were two bass lines recorded for this song, but that’s how they got that cool “oomph” to the recording.  As always, the more I find out about the Beach Boys, the more I love them!

I hope this track adds to your enjoyment of the holidays (paraphrased from Christmas Vacation) and that you’ve taken the time to download the other seven tracks so far.  Stay tuned — Day 9 is next in the series!

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“Please Come Home For Christmas” by Jim Fusco – FREE mp3 Download! – Day 7 of 14

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By Jim Fusco:

Halfway home, folks!  I can’t believe it’s been a full week of releasing these Christmas songs.  I’ll admit, I actually just finished recording the album a few minutes ago, as I still had some guitar work to do.  Just another session of mixing and everything will be complete.  But, it’s like teaching- as long as you’re one page ahead of the students…

I bring you “Please Come Home For Christmas” in the style of The Eagles today, by request from my mom.  She loves the Laptop Sessions version we did a few years ago.  Now, I have to toot my own horn here and say that this newly recorded studio version sounds almost exactly like the original!  I worked very hard to get the correct sounds on the guitar, including the chorus sound on the arpeggiated guitar.

Week number two starts with Day 8 — keep downloading your free copy of all of these songs!  I hope you like “Please Come Home For Christmas”!

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“Tin Man” (America Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Thank you for coming by to check out today’s edition of The Laptop Sessions! I am pleased to bring another great cover song video to you today. And it’s a band we have happily covered before (this is my 3rd personally).

Going back to another America song, and another Dewey Bunnell written song, I bring you “Tin Man” from their album “Holiday”. This song was extremely popular (though not quite as much as “A Horse With No Name”) and it helped the album reach gold status. I love the catchy guitar riff and the simple, yet effective vocals to the song.

My fingers are in such pain after doing this song. The main progression is Gmaj7 and Cmaj7, and I decided I wanted to use the exact chord fingerings that Dewey uses. I’m happy it came out well, but i’m sure you’ll notice me having fun with the Gmaj7 chord. That particular fingering can give me some problems, but in this take I did a pretty good job with it.

I hope you enjoyed this session — the next day’s post brought another original song from the one, the only, Jim Fusco! (EDIT: Sorry, was quite sleepy yesterday)

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 original 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!

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