Tag Archives: laptop sessions

“(I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight” (Cutting Crew Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to yet another edition of Jim Fusco Tuesdays here on the best music video blog ever created.

Now, I’m sure you’ve been wondering why week after week I write, “Welcome, welcome” to begin my posts here on the music blog.  Well, it’s the famous opening to Groucho Marx’s show, “You Bet Your Life.”  “Welcome, welcome to You Bet Your Life.  Say the secret word and the bird will come down and give you a hundred dollars.”  So, that’s the story!

Tonight, I bring to you another one-hit-wonder group with a Number One single on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart in 1987.  “(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight” was a Number 1 for two weeks and it’s a really “eighties” sounding song.  So, what was my response?  To make an acoustic cover version of the song.  These videos tend to be my most popular.  I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

I’ll admit that before tonight, I only really knew the chorus to this song.  I then got the song and listened to it about 15 times (the people next door must’ve thought I was in some sort of a mood tonight.  But, then again, I do live with 24-hours-a-day-music-Moore…).  It really is a great song, after all.  I’m always a sucker for over the top eighties production, and this song has a great guitar solo both in the middle and especially at the end.

My version has a bit of a uniqueness to it, as I made my own version of the opening synth part on acoustic guitar.  It’s nothing special, but I really like the sound.  It definitely beats just strumming it and letting your imagination fill in the gaps.

It’s late now and Dana is really keeping me awake over here with stories, etc.  I’m not complaining- we always have a good time down in the new computer room.  It’s funny- I never spent much time down here until I got the new computer.

My trip this weekend was a lot of fun.  We went up to Lake Champlain and stayed at the Hilton in Burlington, VT.  We wen to Ben & Jerry’s factory, sampled Cabot cheese, and got candy and fudge from the Lake Champlain chocolate factory.  We also got to walk around the wonderful Church Street market, where we had a ton of great food and went to some pretty cool shops.  I’d love to live near a place like that.  Our hotel had an indoor pool, which was nice, especially during the winter in Vermont.

Plus, on Friday, right before I left, I was greeted at home with the painting of the album cover to “Halfway There”, my new album!  It’s officially nearing completion now and the cover went a long way.  I’ll be revealing it online soon!  The painting is amazing.  It was done by a great young artist named Ben Quesnel.  In exchange, I’m making him a website, and after the job he did, I’m really gonna make a great site for him.  This album cover really takes my production to a new level!

Okay, off to bed- a very busy week this week.  Everyone has the week off from school (I’m constantly surrounded by teachers), so everyone thinks that they can just start hanging out and taking more of my time than usual.  I usually don’t mind, but honestly, there’s just too much to do to fit everything in.  Until next Tuesday, have a great week and enjoy tonight’s Laptop Session!

“Where I Find My Heaven” (Gigolo Aunts Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Not feeling too well tonight (cold), so I’ll keep this a bit shorter.

Tonight, I bring you a great song from a true One Hit Wonder- the Gigolo Aunts!  This band is still playing today- they’re really popular overseas, in Spain, I believe.

You might recognize this song- it was a big hit in 1994.  I know my close friends and relatives will recognize this song instantly, as it was featured in the film (and soundtrack to) Dumb and Dumber.  I love that movie so much and the soundtrack is a great one.  You should really try to find it, if it’s still available anywhere.

This is a high-energy song that has a nice tune and just sounds like a solid mid-nineties rock single.  And isn’t it funny that Chris would do an older song yesterday and I would answer back with a 90s song tonight?  It wasn’t even planned!

Actually, my brother Mike is into the Gigolo Aunts now because it turns out that they’re BIG Dennis Wilson (from the Beach Boys) fans.  They even named their most recent album “Pacific Ocean Blues”, after Dennis Wilson’s “Pacific Ocean Blue” from the seventies.  I haven’t heard the Aunts’ album yet, but Mike tells me it’s great.  Once I get out of my big radio show listening kick, I’ll have to give that album a few spins.

And yes, tonight, I bring to you yet another new artist to the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover (and original) songs music video blog.  You kow, there is now a new Laptop Sessions fan every six minutes of every day?!?!  That’s incredible.  I won’t stop promoting (or encouraging the guys to help promote) until we see a visitor a minute here on the site.  I know it’s possible because just a couple months ago, we would’ve laughed at the notion of seeing up to 322 views a day!  Thanks to everyone for the support and I hope you’ll root for me to get better soon.  I’m going on a trip this weekend- I’m glad the sickness happened now instead of then.  I hope to blog about the trip while I’m there, so stay tuned!  Until then, I hope you’ll look forward to the posts on the blog by Chris and Jeff!

“Working My Way Back To You” (Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

I suppose I should’ve done a song today to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of “The Day the Music Died”.  You know, maybe a Buddy Holly tune, or something from the Big Bopper or Ritchie Valens.  But, I decided to honor their memory in a different way…by completely forgetting to do a song by them until I just started writing this post…

Sorry Buddy, Bopper, and Ritchie.

Well, I am happy to bring you a new artist to the music video blog tonight, anyway.  And this person’s still alive (and apparently still putting on some great concerts)- Frankie Valli!  He and his group, the Four Seasons, had so may hits in the sixties (and even a couple big ones later on in the disco era) and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to do one of their songs.

Apparently the Spinners had a big hit with “Working My Way Back To You” in the early eighties, but I’ve always known this original version from 1966 that went all the way to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.  It was a nice challenge to recreate the vocal abilities of Frankie Valli, as he’s always been known for his whiny falsetto.  I don’t necessarily have that kind of falsetto, but I think it gets the sentiment across.  In fact, if you read my post from last Tuesday, you’ll see my comments about how falsetto voices are very hard to reproduce.  That’s because everyone’s voice goes into falsetto at different notes up the scale.  So, you’ll notice in this video that I tend to only do a few notes in falsetto during that last chorus.

I was mentioning to Becky earlier that you can always tell when a song was done by a group that doesn’t write their own songs.  Rock music songwriters usually won’t go out of their way to add a key change for the last, repeating, chorus.  But, as with showtunes and more “vocalist” acts like the Temptations, the Four Tops, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, they take songs from these “serial songwriters” that just write (and not perform) songs for a living.  So, they try to make these big productions out of their songs, which usually includes a key change.  Go back and listen to some of the more “lounge-singer” type acts from the sixties like Johnny Rivers- you’ll hear exactly what I mean.

It’s always fun to bring you another great acoustic cover song music video here on Jim Fusco Tuesdays on the Laptop Sessions music video blog.  Since I brought you the past two Original Wednesday posts, I’m going to take tomorrow off and hope that Chris and/or Jeff will step in.  We’re excited again today because the blog reached 304 views- our NEW best view count for a day!  Thank you to all of the new fans of the Laptop Sessions and especially to those that always come back to see my videos on Tuesday.

Have a great week and I’ll be back again for Jim Fusco Tuesday next week on the greatest (and now, most popular) music video blog ever created!

A “Chris Moore Monday” Premiere!

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By Chris Moore:

Well, I am regretfully feeling pretty terrible tonight and my throat has taken quite the hit.  So, should we just cancel the session for the night and wait for “Jim Fusco Tuesday?”…

Not a chance!

Instead of a music video tonight, I’m working on the first in a series of articles on rock music that I will release in the coming year.  I’m still trying to work on a name for the series as a whole.  Maybe “Rock Face: The Face of Rock Music Today.”  Sorry, that was a shameless inside joke that only a few of you will get.

Seriously, though, I’m working hard on this article now and I hope you enjoy it when I post it later tonight.

On an unrelated note, the Bruce Springsteen Halftime Show performance yesterday was even more exciting than I thought it would be, for a number of reasons.  First of all, the performance itself was great.  As Jim’s father pointed out, it looked like Springsteen would need to be hooked up to oxygen immediately after the show, based on all the energy he put into the twelve minute performance.  Once again, I’m not really a Springsteen fanatic, but I love his recent work.  I’ve been somewhat unimpressed with his live work (including a couple of concerts televised on television over the past few years), but the Super Bowl performance was certainly a high point of the game for me.  I realize that’s sacriledge and I may be branded as an outcast, but so be it…  Oh, and that being said, there’s a really funny list on a Yahoo! blog today called: “The 10 Unforgivable Sins Of Bruce Springsteen’s Performance At The Super Bowl.”  Jim sent it to me earlier today.  Worth a read for any music fan.

The second reason why the performance was so exciting is its aftermath.  I posted the set list and some general comments and predictions yesterday, mainly because I was looking forward to the show and it was on my mind.  Well, the post helped catapult us to an all-new view record for a single day on the Laptop Sessions music blog!  Thank you, Super Bowl, and thank you, Bruce Springsteen!

Stay tuned for the article to come; I hope you enjoy reading it!