Tag Archives: Jim Fusco Songs

“I’m Into Something Good” (Herman’s Hermits Cover)

Posted on by
Reply

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your Sunday, Sunday, Sunday edition of The Laptop Sessions here on the best (explitive) music video blog on planet earth.  Don’t believe me?  This is my 120th Laptop Session, Chris debuts his 100th music video cover song tomorrow, and I’m sure Jeff is knocking on that door very soon…  All this adds up to over 300 music videos all done to perfection with love and care for the music that made us who we are.  I suggest, if this is your first time here, clicking on the band categories in the left sidebar and clicking on your favorite band.  I’m sure you’ll find at least one great acoustic cover music video in there!

On to tonight’s video.  Well, after a long day at the Big E fair in West Springfield, MA, I had to come home to do my video.  Regulars to the video blog know that I usually have quite a backlog of videos handy, but with my recent cold, that stash was depleted.  I’m still not at 100%, but I can fake it, as I did tonight.

I didn’t realize that Brian Wilson did a cover of this song on his new album, “That Lucky Old Sun”.  I guess it was on the Best Buy exclusive disc.  I ended up buying the CD/DVD version, so I’m without the bonus tracks, but luckily Chris has them, as he bought the standard edition (some fan HE is! j/k) at Best Buy.

I saw Herman’s Hermits, or at least some derivitive of them, at the North Haven, CT Fair a couple years ago.  They were really good.  At least they had Peter Noone.  I learned the Creed from the Office was actually a real member of Herman’s Hermits back in the 60s, and he plays a character of himself on the show.  Needless to say, I don’t think Creed was at the North Haven Fair show.

This is an easy song to play, but it’s a lot of fun.  It’s definitely one that you should learn if you’re just starting on guitar and also have a tenor voice.  I’m sure Brian doesn’t sing it in this original key, but who knows- no one expected an album like TLOS during this stage of his career.

Stay tuned, folks.  I, of course, extended New Bands Week by a day, but sadly, Chris will be ending that streak tomorrow.  It’s okay- he’s been planning his big 100th Post Bash for a long time.  And if his camera is still functional after seeing his chest hair, he’ll be back for Thursday’s video, as well.  Until then!

“Runaway Feeling” (The Thorns cover)

Posted on by
Reply

By Jim Fusco:

So, I’ll admit it- that messup in the beginning of the video wasn’t left in there on purpose.  Why didn’t I catch that?  Must’ve been in a rush to render the video…

Anyway, this is my first entry into “New Bands Week”.  Jeff set the bar pretty high yesterday with a great cover of a David Bowie song.  I bring you a song from a MUCH lesser-known artist in The Thorns.  This band, which consists of 90s pop artists Shawn Mullins, Matthew Sweet, and Pete Droge, made only one album and this is the opening track.

I’m not going to lie and say that this is the best album ever, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  My brother Mike had heard one of their songs and got me into the group.  I listened to this album about 100 times, and even though it has some “eh” songs on it (which is consistent with just about ANY debut album), there’s a lot of great songs, too.  The band was clearly influenced by Brian Wilson with their harmonies and usage of great instruments like the bass harmonica.

But, the band also has Traveling Wilburys ties.  All three members played acoustic guitar, just like the Wilburys members did, they used famous session drummer Jim Keltner (known as the sixth Wilbury), and this song, “Runaway Feeling”, sounds like it’s taken from the Tom Petty songbook.  I tried to keep the Petty impersonation to a minimum, but with this song, you don’t really have that much of a choice.

That’s my fiancee Becky in the background clapping for me at the end.  This is the last of my “outdoor” videos.  I have so many songs I’m ready to record from literally TEN new artists, but I can’t right now because I’m in that “no voice” phase of my cold.  I hope it subsides enough by Thursday so I can have a good showing for my next new video.  Thankfully, I already have next week’s Original Wednesday original song video recorded from one of my last sessions.

I’m so excited to see what songs Chris and Jeff are going to do from new artists this week.  Remember last time we did a New Bands Week?  It extended out almost a whole week afterwards.  That’s why I like doing this- it makes us think.  And once a new artist or song pops in, others seem to come very quickly.

Enjoy today’s video and come back tomorrow to see what Chris will premeire for us here on the best music video blog of all time: The Laptop Sessions!  (Oh, and by the way, over the past three days, I’ve gotten TEN more YouTube subscribers!)

Music Video Blog Milestone: Jim Fusco reaches 300 YouTube subscribers!

Posted on by
Reply

Doesn’t it seem like milestones come in bunches?  We can only hope this is the beginning.  With Chris and Jeff nearing 50,000 YouTube views and Jim just over the 100k mark, there seems to be a a trend towards new records and a great success.

Just days after Jim reached the 100k YouTube view plateau, he received his 300th YouTube subscriber.  Actually, last night the count stood at 298 and this morning the number was at 301.  We’d like to formally thank you for the support and Jim can’t wait until he reaches 1000 YouTube subscribers.  It seemed so far out of reach before, but in early May, Jim only had 100 subscribers and now has tripled that in just over four months.  If he triples this number in four months, we should be talking about 900 subscribers by January!

That’s why they started this music video blog.  They knew the possibilities were endless; that there was no ceiling to how many views or subscribers they could get.  And now that the numbers are pouring in, it just makes everyone at the Laptop Sessions want to work harder and achieve even more.

Congrats to Jim on his latest milestone and everyone at the Laptop Sessions can’t wait to see Chris and Jeff reach their next goals, as well!

“New Kid On The Block” (Barenaked Ladies Cover)

Posted on by
Reply

By Jim Fusco:

Hey HEY!  Welcome to your, as Jeff put it, Fantastic Friday edition of the Laptop Sessions here with me, Jim Fusco!  Glad to be here today, but I’ve been incredibly sick the past few days.  I have the worst head cold…  I’ve already lost two nights’ sleep to it.  I was actually saving this video because we Mike did a BNL song recently, but I put this one first because I’m not sure how well I’ll be by Monday when we’ll be doing “New Bands Week” here.  I have a new band video already recorded and ready to go, so I bought myself until Thursday when I have to record another video.  I can only assume I’ll be better by then!  Actually, I have literally sixteen or seventeen songs ready to record.  I’ve been practicing like mad over the past month and these videos, once recorded, will provide me with almost two full months worth of videos.  In that pool of songs, there’s also TEN new bands!  So, I’m working hard every day to bring fresh viewers to the music video blog and to keep all the regular viewers excited.

Today, I bring you a song that I really love called “New Kid On The Block”.  What perfect timing, too, as the “classic” early 90s band “New Kids on the Block” is in the middle of their “anticipated” reunion.  They have a new album out and everything.  This song is literally about being a member of the band.  Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies wrote this song for their first album, “Gordon”.  What a great satire.  At the time (1992), the New Kids were both “new” and “kids”…well, not really, as you’ll hear in the lyrics of the song.  But, they were popular, nonetheless, and Page must’ve thought it would be funny to write a song from the point of view of one of the band members.

Some of my favorite all-time BNL lines are in this song, including “Well we may not write the songs we sing, but look at Elvis, he sold his soul and you crowned him King.”  The New Kids are pretty much everything I hate in a band, and BNL is truly everything I love in a band.  That’s why this song is just about perfect in my eyes.

One of the other parts of the song I love is at the end with the inclusion of a few New Kids on the Block songs.  I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to incorporate those parts into my solo acoustic cover version here, and all on the first try!

Enjoy today’s video and stay tuned for New Bands Week here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover and original songs music video blog starting on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!