Tag Archives: Jim Fusco Songs

“Maybe Baby” (Buddy Holly cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello everyone- it’s a Tuesday, so that mean’s it’s another edition of The Laptop Sessions and another acoustic cover song from me, Jim Fusco! Tonight, I bring you an oldie, but a goodie in Buddy Holly’s classic tune, “Maybe Baby”.  You know, it’s funny- I can almost picture how Buddy wrote this song.  He started playing an A chord, followed by an F#m chord, which is a nice change.  I can tell that he really liked it and kept playing it over and over until the tune of, “Maybe baby, I’ll have you…” came into his head.  The rest of the song is pretty formulaic after that.

But, that’s what I love so much about these very early rock’n’roll songs- it must’ve been great to have a wide-open slate because no one had done it before!  So, even the simplest chord changes (like the one I just mentioned) became opportunities for new rock songs.  I’m sure someone used that progression in jazz or another form of earlier music, but since Buddy was such a pioneer, he was the first to utilize such chord progressions in rock music.

Now, of course, Buddy Holly had the advantage of being one of the first to write modern rock’n’roll songs in this style, but it wasn’t easy.  Having a blank slate seems great- “Oh, okay, I have every chord and no one has taken any of the potential melodies yet- this will be easy to write a song!”  But, you have to remember that Buddy, unlike the rest of us, didn’t have a lot to draw from.  He didn’t grow up listening to similar music like I did.  He had to do it first, which is infinitely more difficult to do than when you have some prior knowledge to draw on.

So, even though “Maybe Baby” may not be the hardest or most complicated song, I still give the man all the credit in the world because he paved the way for so many others.  I plan on starting a little Buddy Holly collection- I saw a really great CD retrospective once with all of his original, earliest recordings.  That blows me away- there’s some songs in there from the early 50’s!

For this video, I tried to sing the song true to the original, but it’s tough to do that on a Buddy Holly song without having it sound like an imitation.  Of course, I never want that.  So, I tried singing just like myself, but threw in a few “hiccups” of Buddy Holly’s style in there.  It was a lot of fun to record!

The busiest month of the year so far…and it’s only the first one!  I keep telling myself, “Well, as soon as (insert major event here) is over, then things will go back to normal.”  But, as soon as home life returns to normal, work life goes crazy, and vice-versa.

I hope you have a great week and stop back, if for nothing else than my next post next Tuesday!

“Dream Lover” (Bobby Darin Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello everybody and welcome to your Tuesday night fix of Jim Fusco’s Cover Song Experience!  No, that’s not my new one-man band name- I’ve just been watching ‘Arrested Development” and was thinking of “Dr. Funke’s 100 Percent Natural Good Time Family Band Solution”, which I find incredibly funny.

Anyway, tonight I bring you a song that’s over 50 years old in Bobby Darin’s self-penned classic, “Dream Lover”.  And I can’t believe it’s our first Bobby Darin song on the music blog!

There’s this radio show I listen to on WHUS radio (at the UCONN campus in Storrs, CT).  It’s called “Rockin’ With Wayne” and I can’t get enough of it.  He just plays all these songs from the 50s and very early 60s.  So, I get to hear Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, etc.  I just love those old songs.  They’re so simple and all kind of sound alike, but they’re happy and innocent.  Even the “downer” songs are just so lightweight that I can’t help but smile when I hear them.  So, I’m on a bit of an oldies cover song kick.

Next week’s post will also be a song that’s over 50 years old- it’s even older than “Dream Lover’!  After that, I have a lot of possibilities, including my new “deadly” musical interest that will appear on the blog soon…as soon as I can find someone who can sing and play guitar to help me out.

Getting back to tonight’s song, we’re talking about a fairly formulaic tune for the late 50s here, especially that middle section.  But, what always made me love this tune is the great start-stop beat in the chorus.  It’s so unique.  And even though it uses only C, G7, C, and F chords (in that order), something about the melody there and the beat always gets me.

In other news, I had a great day on Sunday- Dana came over for “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” and we had a good time, even though I’m not that great at it yet.  After that, my father came over and we all watched the Jets game.  It was amazing!  Mike came over, too, and we all had pizza and snacks.  After that, we ordered TNA’s “Genesis” Pay-Per-View.  And even though there were some startling moves like the new 4-sided ring, the new entrance ramp (which I saw in a WCW pay-per view back from 1991), the addition of Misterrrrrrrr…..Anderson, and a couple of title changes, it was a pretty good show.  The AJ Styles heel turn was very unexpected- he’s aligned with none other than the Nature Boy, Ric Flair!

Lots of work this week, both at home and at my day job, so I’ll keep this post a bit briefer than usual.  Is “briefer” a word?  Sounds like someone who makes underwear…

Anyway, I hope you have a good time watching “Dream Lover” and will come right back here next week for another “Roots of Rock’n’Roll” acoustic cover song music video.  Until then!

Another Music Blog Milestone: Jim Fusco Surpasses 500,000 YouTube Video Views!

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By Jim Fusco:

Folks, I’m proud to announce that I’ve crossed over the half-million mark.  Yes, 500,000 YouTube video views on my acoustic cover songs and counting!  The popularity of this YouTube series has skyrocketed since I started it all back in late 2007.  It feels like so much longer than two years.  But, 200 videos, over 730 subscribers, and over a half-million video views later, here we are!

The numbers continue to grow and I can only hope that the next 500,000 (which I’m hoping will come in just half the time as the first half-million) will be comprised of more views from the blog itself and not through searches on YouTube.

Thank you to all my subscribers and everyone that’s helped make the Laptop Sessions such an internet sensation!

“Iris” (Goo Goo Dolls Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another edition of The Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!

I have a big announcement that will come very shortly after this post, so I hope you’ll stay tuned and check it out.  It’s quite a milestone!

First, let me say that I had a GREAT weekend.  We had my best college friends over for the first time on Saturday night and ate, talked, played a Family Guy DVD trivia game, and watched “The Hangover”, which I loved even more the second time around.

Then on Sunday, I went to my favorite little Mexican restaurant in Wallingford with my father, then we both hiked up to Danbury for the TNA Wrestling show at WCSU.  IT WAS AWESOME!!  They had great matches, there were a ton of stars there, and I got to meet many of the wrestlers.  Turns out that Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne are two of the nicest ones–and they play the meanest ones on TV!  I also got to meet Jeff Jarrett and got my photo taken with The Phenomenal AJ Styles.  I even got to hold the Championship belt!!

It was quite a weekend, so I knew it would be a tough week to make up for it.  Things are very busy at work and I’ve been keeping a steady pace on my nighttime work, as well.  It’s a new strategy I’m trying that’s working well so far.  Thankfully I recorded this video last week- my mood would’ve been much different if not.

Which finally brings me to tonight’s video:

“Iris” is one of those songs that I kind of knew, but never knew who did it.  I was surprised to find out what a big hit it was.  In fact, it holds the record for consecutive weeks as the Number One played song on the radio (13) according to Billboard.  It made it to the Top 10 on the charts and stands as Goo Goo Dolls’ biggest hit.

After Laptop Sessions alumnus Jeff Copperthite introduced me to this band on WCJM Free Internet Radio shows many years ago, it took me about ten years to actually break down and buy an album.  I purchased “Dizzy Up the Girl”, which was their biggest album (probably because it had “Iris” on it).  Actually, I didn’t realize this song was on it- not exactly the best name for a song when it doesn’t even mention that word in the lyrics.  I bet it would’ve gotten to #1 if people knew the stinkin’ title!

Actually, Jeff played many tracks (especially on our personal BSYNHO shows for our wives) from the Goo Goo Dolls that were album cuts and lesser hits.  So, I knew a few others, including a couple Jeff’s already posted here on the music blog.  I really, really enjoyed “Dizzy Up the Girl”, so I went out and bought two more of their albums (for like four bucks apiece, too): “A Boy Named Goo” and “Superstar Car Wash”.  But, I haven’t listened to them yet because I’m currently in a phase from another band we haven’t covered yet on the blog.  Let’s just say I’m “dying” to record a video from them!  You’ll find out soon.

Anyway, like I said, “Iris” isn’t my favorite tune from Goo Goo Dolls so far, but I couldn’t believe Jeff hadn’t done their biggest hit (I’m assuming it’s because of the high range in the chorus), so I wanted to snatch it up.  It’s always great to claim a video you know will be popular.

Well, I’m running lean on time tonight, but am really enjoying the amount of sleep I’ve been getting.  I mean, I worked today, cooked dinner, worked again tonight, and posted a Laptop Session.  Now, I’m off to watch some more “Arrested Development” with my wife and brother, then it’s off to bed for 8 hours of sleep.  Now THAT’S some Operations Planning if I do say so myself! 🙂  Anyone from work would be cracking-up at that one…

Until next week!