Tag Archives: guest sessions

“Just A Dream” (Nelly Cover)

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By Pat Noonan:

My first impression of “Just A Dream” by Nelly was how big and full the hook sounded for such a ballad-ish song, so I wanted to try to really strip it down to just two tracks for an acoustic version, pretty much the opposite approach to covering “Just The Way You Are” last week (see YouTube). I ended up cutting some of the song out, slightly altering the melody/lyrics in some places, writing a fitting acoustic guitar part and changing some of the chords. The ending I did seemed appropriate because that’s actually the song that gets stuck in my head whenever I hear the Nelly song haha so I hope you like it; let me know what you think!

** EDITOR’S NOTE: **

It’s not every day that I check my inbox and find a link to an acoustic cover version of a Nelly song.

Well, it apparently happens sometimes, because I’m here to welcome back Pat Noonan for his second featured video on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video blog.  He’s chosen an interesting track to cover, and his performance highlights his impressive vocals. I have the strong suspicion that you’ll enjoy this as much as I did.

Happy Friday, and check back soon for new material here at the blog!

“Wake Me Up When September Ends” (Green Day Cover)

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** This is the very first “Guest Session” here at the Laptop Sessions acoustic music blog.  The concept of this regular Friday post is that, each Friday, the Laptop Session will be recorded and written entirely by a guest performer.

Click here to submit your own video!

For our first choice, we bring you a video from Andrew E., a YouTube regular.  Tonight, he brings us a new band to the blog.  This is Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” from their American Idiot album.

Enjoy, and hurry back for Chris Moore Monday! **

By Andrew E.

I Love Green Day. I’ve been listening to them since 03. More importantly, playing guitar has been a big part of my life. I got my first guitar from my grandpa when I was 5. Since then, I’ve been consistently trying to improve my playing.

It’s more than a hobby, its a part of me.

“Beat It” (Michael Jackson Cover)

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By Federico Borluzzi:

Acoustic cover of Michael Jackson’s song “Beat It,” from the 1982 Thriller album.  I changed the guitar parts, creating an alternative version of this song which is okay for my acoustic version.

** EDITOR’S NOTE **

This is a moment I didn’t see coming…

Introducing the first Michael Jackson acoustic cover song to the Laptop Sessions, care of Guest Sessions regular Federico Borluzzi!  For tonight’s installment, he’s come up with quite an interesting arrangement for this early eighties hit.  On his YouTube page, Federico writes, “This cover is intended to be a tribute to Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, who’s gone too soon and whose death shocked me and the whole world. He left us a legacy of great songs, such as this one… I did an alternative, quiet and acoustic cover…”

I think you’ll agree as you listen that this is a fitting tribute, and it’s done in the Laptop Sessions tradition of stripping a fully produced (and sometimes over-produced) song down to its core elements.  From the opening moments of the video, Federico sets a mesmerizing fingerpicking pattern that will guide the whole song, and is indeed one of the highlights of his performance.

I hope you enjoy this video — I know I did, and I couldn’t be happier to present this week’s Guest Session.  Hurry back for new articles and announcements throughout the weekend!

“Radioactive” (Imagine Dragons cover) – The Guest Sessions

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This week’s Guest Sessions cover song post is a very interesting one, indeed. I honestly didn’t know what to think when I clicked on this link. Then, once I clicked on it and saw a young woman with a ukulele in her hands, I REALLY didn’t know what to think! But, once I clicked “play”, it started to become clear. Yes, someone actually pulled off a cover of “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons on the ukulele!

And that’s what the Laptop Sessions is all about. My favorite videos we’ve done here are the ones that take a song (say from the 80s, like “Heart and Soul” by Huey Lewis and the News) and strip away all the dated production. That way, you just get to hear the song itself presented in its most basic form. That’s what Jenna did here with “Radioactive”.

No, the production values on the original version aren’t dated-sounding like stuff from the 80s, but if you’ve heard the original version of this song before, you’re probably as surprised as I was to see that there was a version done on the ukulele. It’s a hard rock song with a dark message. This video is truly a Laptop Sessions interpretation.

It also looks just like a Laptop Sessions video, doesn’t it? It’s a single camera of a person sitting on the bed, playing and singing by herself. It’s exactly like one of the original videos we did in 2007/2008 (and continue to this day!).

So, thanks, Jenna, for submitting this really cool video to us and I hope you all enjoy today’s Guest Sessions acoustic (ukulele) cover song version of “Radioactive” here on the best music blog around: The Laptop Sessions!