Tag Archives: new rock music

Jim Fusco’s 100th Laptop Session: “A Simple Game” (Moody Blues Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to my 100th Laptop Session! I cant believe I’ve actually done 100 already, but the thing I’m happiest about is that the blog is finally starting to pull the visitors we’ve always thought we deserved from all this hard work over the past few months. So, I hope you’ll click on the “Share This” button under the title of all of our music video blog posts and share our videos on Facebook, MySpace, and Digg. We keep coming out with the content- free acoustic covers and original songs every day of the year- and now we need your help to make this spread. Because, I’ll admit- after doing 100 videos, it was almost a necessity to get more visitors to keep the spirits high here at the Laptop Sessions. And, I can honestly say, these spirits have never been higher. So, expect higher and higher video and sound quality every single day!

Tonight, I bring you a song I find fitting for my 100th Laptop Sessions song. Out of all the cover songs I’ve done, “A Simple Game” by the Moody Blues (and made a big hit by the Four Tops) stands as one of my original “favorite” songs. Back on the “Best Song EVER” show on WCJM free internet radio, I chose this as one of my top three favorite songs of all time, along with “The Little Girl I Once Knew” by the Beach Boys and “Hey Jude” by the Beatles. Of course, this show was recorded in 2000 when I was only 15 or 16 and my favorite songs list has changed a little bit. I’d have to say “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” by the Byrds and “You Just May Be The One” by the Monkees are my top two right now. But, “A Simple Game” is still up there for me, especially because it WON the “Best Song EVER” contest on WCJM!

A few years later, we did another “Best of” show called the “Song for the New Millennium Show”, and another one of my picks won: “All The Things” by the Byrds, which Jeff stole as a Laptop Session from me a few days ago. But, he did the cover song justice (as he does with all of his acoustic cover songs), so you should really check it out here on the Laptop Sessions Music Video Blog.

This song, “A Simple Game”, was never on a Moody Blues album- only a single. Mike Pinder wrote the song and the Four Tops took it and made it a huge hit, especially in England. But, I’ve always known the Moody Blues version, being such a big fan, so that’s the version I’ve stayed true to here.

I hope you enjoy my 100th Laptop Session- an expansive collection of acoustic cover songs and my own original music. Please stay tuned every single day here on the music video blog and we’ll continue to hit milestones, break records, and record great music!

“Come and Get It” (Badfinger Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another video in the Laptop Sessions music video blog series!

Tonight, I bring you my 99th video- yes, my 99th video! It’s from yet another band we haven’t done yet: Badfinger!

This song was one of their first singles, written by Paul McCartney while he was still with the Beatles. A version exists of McCartney playing and singing this song himself on the Beatles Anthology Volume 3. Honestly, it sounds exactly the same. That, for me, lets me know why there were so many rumors that Badfinger was just the Beatles in disguise. Of course, that’s not the case. Badfinger’s members actually have a very sad biography- if you ever get a chance to read about it, I think it would be worth your while.

There are many songs from Badfinger that I’d love to do in the future, including “Day After Day”, “Baby Blue”, and “No Matter What”. Those are all great songs and really showed that this group wasn’t just a Beatles spin-off bunch, but a real musical force and a darn-good band.

Come back tomorrow for another Laptop Session from Chris and come back on Thursday for my big 100th video!

“Hungry Heart” (Bruce Springsteen cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

How is it even possible that we can keep rolling out quality new music artists like Bruce Springsteen here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic song music video blog? I mean, we have over 80 categories now on the site, and we STILL have not done a song from such heavy-hitters as the Rolling Stones & Crosby, Stills, and Nash. But, with time, we’ll be adding these great bands and musicians to our catalog of acoustic cover songs.

Tonight, I bring you our first-ever Bruce Springsteen song, dedicated to my good friend, and fellow Mets fan, John Grabar, a huge Springsteen fan. Honestly, there are many songs from Springsteen that I’d like to do for future Laptop Sessions, but this one always struck me as catchy and meaningful. But, I will admit, it was only a few years ago that I learned this was actually Bruce singing the lead to this tune! I mean, it barely sounds like him, especially like he sounds in such hits as “My Hometown”.

“Hungry Heart” is one of those special songs that honestly has four chords (save for the ten second interlude in the middle) and the same chords repeat for the verse and the chorus. I mean, if you can get away with it, make a good song, and sell a ton of copies, then why not?

Well, that’s all for me tonight. You’ll remember it was three weeks ago that I gave the reigns over to Chris and Jeff for the weekend and the website went down for three days. Of course, it wasn’t their fault AT ALL, but it’s still fun to tease them about it. I’m planning on meeting my good friends Dave and Dana tomorrow night for a beer, and I’m really looking forward to it. Now that things are (finally) stable here on the blog, I can start to prioritize my life again…without making “fix the blog” come in at #1.

“You and I” (Dennis Wilson Cover)

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As the biggest Beach Boys fan (I mean, a true lover of their music- not just a big collector) under the age of 30, I pride myself on being a complete Beach Boys fan. Some people on Brian Wilson’s message board are JUST Brian Wilson fans- they only consider the golden years of the Beach Boys to be when Brian was writing the songs and calling the shots.

For me, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Yes, of course, I love the early Beach Boys music. I also love Pet Sounds. And, I’m even “okay” with “Love You” and “15 Big Ones”.

But, my favorite Beach Boys albums are the ones where everyone contributes. Nothing gets me excited than to find a new Bruce Johnston song, a Carl Wilson song, or especially a Dennis Wilson song. In fact, my brother Mike considers Dennis Wilson to be the best songwriter of all time. Okay, so maybe he doesn’t have an extensive enough catalog to prove that claim, but just one listen to songs like “Forever”, “Thoughts of You”, and “Cuddle Up” make the claim all the more believable.

I can sit here all night and rant about how much I love Dennis Wilson’s music. When I found out about the “Pacific Ocean Blue” album re-release for June of 2008, I was ecstatic, even though my family is one of the lucky few with both a CD and vinyl original version that we’ve had for many years. I’m always a fan of remastering old songs and I was especially excited about hearing a true release of his unreleased “Bambu” album. Of course, I even had a bootleg- I’ll admit- that I bought for Mike one year at Christmas. I considered it one of my greatest presents for him and he was so excited.

One thing I can say about Denny during his late 1970s period is that I get really sad listening to how much his voice deteriorated. He had a very nice, yet not perfect, voice in the late 60s and very early 70s. I just couldn’t believe that he had let life ruin his voice like that. Although, his scratchy voice really did lend itself to some powerful and emotional renditions of his solo work.

Tonight, I bring you the first of MANY Dennis Wilson solo songs to grace the Laptop Sessions. I’m very proud of this one, not only because it’s one my favorites off of “Pacific Ocean Blue”, but because I’m doing an acoustic guitar version of this otherwise keyboard-based song. It has an interesting new sound and the lyrics really stand out. Plus, isn’t that tune just infectious? This song, as simple as it is, seems to transcend time- it sounds new now, as I’m sure it sounded innovative then.

I hope you enjoy my first Dennis Wilson solo acoustic cover song here on the Laptop Sessions music video blog. My only hope is that this version can start to give Dennis’ songs the attention they’ve always deserved.