Hello everyone- I know you were expecting a great acoustic cover song music video tonight, but instead, to commemorate my brand new album, “Halfway There”, I decided to record track two off of the album, “Our Love Doesn’t Translate”.
“Halfway There”, available at http://jimfusco.com, is an album I’m very proud of- I’m sure you’ll love it, and to prove it, you can hear the entire album online before you buy!
If I weren’t so tired tonight, I would tell you SO much about this song and this album. My friend Alberto and I wrote this song while in Italy- we were so proud of it and we both knew we had a great song on our hands. We were so excited to record this song when we got back- I finished it within a couple of weeks. That was almost two full years ago- I’m so glad this album is finally finished and released!
Listen to the words of this song- they tell the whole story of a lost love and not being able to “connect” with that person. It’s an exaggerated metaphor for this theory and I think you’ll get what we were talking about.
Okay- it’s been an incredibly long day and I need to gear up for another. We had a great time tonight with a new friend from California- what a great way to kick-off the album release!
Welcome to another Jim Fusco Tuesday here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog. I can’t believe it’s been another week- here I am again to send a new cover song music video your way.
I realized I’ve only done one Beach Boys song so far in 2009 (and a quite unknown one, at that), so I decided to please the Beach Boys faithful (who’d have to be REALLY faithful to wait three months for another video) by doing a song everybody knows in “Do You Wanna Dance?”!
Originally written and recorded by Bobby Freeman in the late 50’s, the Beach Boys version is very far removed from the original recording. Freeman’s version has a more bossonova feel to it and is a little slower-paced. Brian Wilson, clearly budding into an ambitious producer at the time, took the song and turned it pure mid-sixties rock and roll. It peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at Nubmer 12, and was the highest charting record with Dennis Wilson on lead vocals.
This was a great song for Denny to sing- I love the Beach Boys version so much more because Brian gave Dennis a chance to sing on it. The production on the Beach Boys version is very Phil Spector influenced, so my acoustic cover version of it married the Beach Boys verison (in terms of style) without all the guitars, tympanies, etc.
I had to fight siging this song like Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys, as in concert he’s the one who sings Dennis’ lead vocals. He sings much differently than Dennis normally would, so there’s different inflection to the words. I sing more like Bruce than Dennis, so I was inclined to sing the Bruce version- but stopped myself and tried to stay true to Denny’s original vocal style, raspy voice not included.
Right after “Do You Wanna Dance?” was released, the Beach Boys came out with one of their Number One singles in “Help Me Rhonda”, a great song. 1965 was an amazing year for music, but especially for groups like the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan. It was also the break-out year for the Byrds. The Beach Boys’ “Today” album has to be one of the best recordings ever, especially because it combines the happiness of earlier Beach Boys albums and (some of) the production value of later recordings like “Pet Sounds”.
I hope you enjoy my version of “Do You Wanna Dance?”. On a personal note, I’m scheduled to receive my copies of my new album, “Halfway There”, tomorrow on CD, but the release date still stands for April 7th. I hope you’re as excited as I am! When I get the CDs, I’m sure I’ll get ambitious and do a ton of promotion, so stay tuned! Have a great week- I’ll try to post an original, but I’m pretty tired, so we’ll see. Talk to you again soon!
Why doesn’t anyone post Original Wednesdays anymore? Well, I’ll just chalk it up to the fact that my brand-new album is coming out in less than two weeks- “Halfway There”! If you’ve been to the music video blog before, you’ve probably seen advertisements for it. You may have even heard a bit. I hope you’re liking it so far- it’s a loooooong time in the making! If you’ve been here before, you’ve probably also noticed that we cover almost 200 bands- a new video three times a week. You may not know that on a weekly basis, we post original songs, as well!
Tonight, I bring you track 3 from the upcoming “Halfway There” LP. On the album, you’ll notice that this song is much punchier and has a more modern sound to it. Okay, so maybe it doesn’t have a modern sound, but it’s as modern as you’re gonna get from me! 🙂 The song has some cool effects and features a very intricate five part harmony on the chorus- it’s so cool to listen to it in the car because the chorus seems to “widen” the speakers as soon as it kicks in. It does that on the first chorus of the song “Halfway There”, as well- I’d love to hear reactions when the album comes out! I got this effect because of the new mastering techniques I learned. No longer does it sound like a wet burlap sack is draped over the speakers when listening to a recording of mine. I’ve actually even remastered my last album, “What About Today?”, in the same way- you should HEAR how much better it sounds! One of these days, I’ll get a digital copy up on the FMP Store.
Anyway, “On For Miles” is supposed to be “single-worthy” in the sense that it’s the third song on the album, but it does follow two superb ones (if I do say so myself) in “Go Back To Him” and “Our Love Doesn’t Translate”. I knew I needed to follow-up those songs with something really catchy, as well, but that also got you into the feel of the whole album, rather than listening to a collection of singles. It’s tough to describe.
So, this version, which is only me and an acoustic guitar, has a much different vibe- but that’s when a cover song on acoustic guitar is really interesting. It’s never interesting to take a song that was done acoustically in the first place and just do it live in front of the camera. It’s fun to take a fully-produced song and pare it down to the bare bones and play it just as a “song” and not a production.
I hope you enjoy tonight’s original song and I hope you’re as excited as I am about the release of “Halfway There”. I just got the UPS tracking number for the shipment- looks like I’ll be getting them a week earlier than expected, but you’re still going to have to wait until the 7th to get your copy! 🙂 I live for anticipation.
Have a great rest of the week and I’ll be back with only my second Beach Boys tune for the year on Tuesday. I figure once a quarter is good to keep the loyal fans happy! The only question is, “Which one?” You’ll have to wait and see for that, too! Geesh, I’m just teasing everyone tonight, huh? Oh, wait, I guess I did just post two videos in a row…so, you can afford to wait a few days! See you then.
Two for the price of one sale today on Jim Fusco videos, as our internet was down on Tuesday, preventing me from posting my all-new acoustic cover song video! Tonight, I bring you another new artist to the music blog in Elton John. INCREDIBLE that we haven’t done a song by him yet- ten Pearl Jam songs and not one from EJ? Yikes!
Anyway, tonight’s song is one that I knew only a certain section of before I truly learned it for my acoustic video. I knew the “Ah…” part in the song because it’s so catchy. I must’ve heard it on the radio a bunch of times and that’s what I took away from it. Listening to the entire song and really paying attention, I noticed that this is truly a great recording. I LOVE the guitar that come in on the chorus, playing these electric guitar arpeggiated notes. Heaven!
There’s also some great backing vocals going on during the song- it creates such a lush sound and everyone knows how I love a good backing vocal choir! My roommate Dana helped me out tonight, as this turned out to be one of his favorite songs- he knew every word and helped me out a TON when it came to the inflection on the singing, especially on the choruses.
This song wasn’t an easy one to play or sing. But then again, isn’t that what the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog is all about? We don’t take the easy way out, folks- we challenge ourselves on a daily basis. Chris, Jeff, and I have held-off playing certain songs for months because we wanted to perfect them. I still have to hear it from my father every week that I haven’t done “Here Comes the Sun” or “God Only Knows” yet. But, for those songs, you need to perfect them before debuting them to the world. And that’s what I plan on doing.
You should’ve seen Dana’s eyes when I told him I was covering this song on acoustic guitar. I proceeded to tell him, however, that the videos I get the most views on are the ones where people go, “Wait, someone did that song on GUITAR? I gotta see this.” Everyone always goes in so skeptical (I get a lot of messages saying, “I thought this would suck, but I was pleasantly surprised!”) and I can understand why- I mean, look at the 99.999% of YouTube cover videos out there that truly do STINK. But, as we said a long time ago here on the music blog, the goal of the Laptop Sessions is to put an end to bad YouTube covers forever!
I hope you enjoy my rendition- I practiced it about twenty times and made sure everything was correct. I’m happy to debut Elton John’s music here on the music video blog and hope that Chris and Jeff will decide to tackle some of his songs in the future. But if I hear Chris singing “Candle in the Wind”, I may have to break his acoustic guitar. 🙂 Until…well…next post…a couple minutes from now…have a great one!
