“Eight Days A Week” (Beatles Cover)

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, everyone, to another Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video!  I bring you the second video from our last session two weeks ago.  Unfortunately, I still can’t bring myself to drop the $60 to get the Beatles Rock Band yet (that new mortgage looms large in the foreground) and the same goes for the remastered box set, which I’m just dying to hear.

Tonight, our video is “Eight Days A Week”, another addition to our collection of Beatles cover songs.  It’s funny how this one became a video- Steve (whose shoulder is shown in this video) said, “Hey Jim- play a whole bunch of D notes on your guitar rapidly and let me try something.”  Sure enough, within a few seconds, we started the song.  Fast-forward a couple minutes (and a little discussion on harmony parts) and you had our fellow band member Chris C. sight-reading sheet music and playing the melody on his mandolin.  That’s him there in the center of the video, transposing notes on the fly.

I love the way the song songs with the two guitars and the mandolin.  You can really hear the mandolin part in the second half of this cover video and it adds such a cool dynamic.  We’ve got some great videos planned that will feature the mandolin, which I’m pretty excited about.  I will forever be a chord player (and improv. soloist) on the mandolin, so it’s cool to play with someone that can translate sheet music into a mandolin part.

Steve and I combined for some great singing in this video, if I do say so myself.  For some reason, I’m singing this with so much confidence and we had some nice parts together, especially on the “Eight days a week, I lo-uh-uh-uh-ove you” part.  And, I feel so much more easy-going when Steve’s playing guitar with me because I don’t have that feeling that I have to be the entire band.  I can strum, learn some licks, etc.  Very exciting stuff!

On a personal note, things are going well, but I don’t know how- we’re tearing the condo up, getting ready to sell things for some extra pre-house cash and working on getting the condo “rental-ready”.  That’s in addition to working and doing extra night and weekend work to ensure we’re okay financially when we move into our new place about a month and a half from now.  Thankfully, Becky is always one to look on the bright side with a sense of knowing- I’m not a fan of those who just see the rosy side of things for the sake of seeing it that way…

Anyway, I kind of wish I had eight days in a week so I could get all this stuff done.  Thankfully, some aspects of life (job, marriage, family) are stable now, so it makes dealing with the unstable things in life (like living your life by the whim of a mortgage company that doesn’t answer the phone) that much more bearable.

I’ll look forward to our next recording session on Friday and hopefully we’ll be back with new videos next Tuesday night.  Hey, maybe this time we can finally introduce the fourth Acai Berry…but we’ll all have to wait and see.  Until then, have a great week!

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“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” (The Beatles Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and I hope your weekend is off to a good start.  It’s Where-the-heck-is-Jeff Copperthite here today to bring you the latest installment of the Laptop Sessions, another in our series of Beatles cover songs, and session cover song music video #90 overall.

I am continuing to delve into the libraries of previously covered bands, and I have always enjoyed todays song a lot.  It really is amazing just how many Beatles’ songs I know and am familiar with.  Of that huge library, this is probably my favorite.

“You’ve got to hide your love away” is from the Beatles’ album “Help!” and it’s extremely incorrect Semaphore album cover.  You may also be familiar with the cover version of this song by Eddie Vedder.  And while that is a good version, it’s hard to beat the original.

You will notice a singing style that i’m not used too, and I feel it is quite effective.  Lately I have been hearing great things about my most recent video, and that my ability to sing on video has taken a lot of leaps.  i’m glad you think so!  Thank you for all your support.

Also, i’m nearing 39K views, and while I fell about 2K short of my 40K goal by the end of August, I still did quite well and I am very proud of how we are doing.  No reason we can’t continue to increase our views per day.1

I hope you enjoy today’s session, and return tomorrow for another great song cover by Jim Fusco!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

“Thank You Girl” (Beatles Cover)

By Chris Moore:

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!  I hope you had a joyous Turkey Day, “stuffing” yourself in the company of friends and “spuds” — I mean, buds.  If you have tomorrow off, then that’s just “gravy”…

Okay, that’s enough of that.

Seriously, I hope you had a positive day, filled with family members and friends, enjoying a day off from work.  As for me, I woke up late (almost afternoon) to a phone call from my sister.  Knowing me all too well, my mother asked her to call me and tell me that dinner would take place a half hour before it would actually start.

At least I got there on time!

My day essentially started as soon as I got out of bed (at the early hour of noon) and went to my parents’ house.  I had a nice, relaxing time talking with my parents and grandparents, as well as hanging out with my sister and talking about music.  I brought my laptop over so I could finally finish the “2008 Essentials” mix CD I’ve been wanting to make for weeks.  Some highlights were…

– “Living Well is the Best Revenge” (REM)

– “Valley of the Low Sun” (Jakob Dylan)

– “7 8 9” (Barenaked Ladies)

– “Cowboys” (Counting Crows)

and, of course,

– “These Streets” (MoU)

I’m not biased about that last one, I swear!  🙂

After dinner, I spent a long time talking with my parents and grandparents. Then, once the company had gone, my father and I watched the Tom Selleck movie The Shadow Riders.  It was based on a Louis L’Amour novel, so it was pretty cheesy at times, but overall, it was a fun film.  Once the movie ended, the day was still long from over.  I went over Jim’s parents’ house to watch this week’s special Turkey Bowl edition of TNA Impact! (the highlight of which was, without a doubt, Mick Foley “dealing with” Alex Shelley of the Motor City Machine Guns).

A half hour after TNA was over, Jim and I were back home recording this great Beatles cover song, “Thank You Girl.”  Why did I pick this song, you ask?  Is it a favorite?  Well, no.  In fact, I didn’t even know it until yesterday.  The reason is that it goes along with the theme of today — giving thanks!

I actually posted this video late because Jim and I ended up playing great Beatles and Christmas songs for another hour and a half before going downstairs to snack, watch a Jack Johnson DVD, and do research for our Black Friday adventure.

And, yeah, I’m going to bed at 4am, prepared to wake up at 5am…

May the Christmas shopping season begin!!

See you next session!

“You’re Sixteen” (Ringo Starr Cover)

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to a slightly-belated Monday, Monday edition of the Laptop Sessions!  Due to Rosh Hashanna celebrations, Jeff asked if Mike could step in.  When that didn’t work out, it was left up to me to fill the space so the Laptop Session a day project can continue!  I’ll have tonight’s video and tomorrow’s, as well, so Jeff will replace my regularly-scheduled acoustic cover song on Friday.  Whippee- no video for me until Monday!

Tonight, you get Ringo Starr’s only Number One Billboard Hot 100 hit in “You’re Sixteen”.  This has to be one of the most fun videos I’ve ever done and if you watch it, you’ll know why.  My version even features the famous kazoo solo, originally played by one Sir Paul McCartney!

I love listening to random mode on my iPod (the “old” 80 gig model).  I heard this song again (I’ve known it for years- who hasn’t?) and then decided to listen to the entire “Ringo” album.  What a great one, including (no pun intended) the song “I’m The Greatest”, which I believe was written by John Lennon.  Ringo always did collaborations well.  Fans will hopefully remember “Never Without You” that he did for George Harrison with a guitar solo by the great Eric Clapton.

I suppose I should give Ringo songs a rest for a while, as I’ve done two recently.  Which one, you ask?  Well, the best way to find out these things is to visit the Laptop Sessions music video blog every single day, but if you missed it, you can just go to the Categories menu in the left bar and click on “Ringo Starr songs”.  Have a great one!

More Laptop Sessions covers