Hello and welcome to Day 12 of Jim Fusco’s 14 Days of Rock’n’Roll Christmas 2015! Only a couple songs left, but I’ve saved some good ones for last!
Tonight is my cover of Chuck Berry’s Christmas song, ‘Run Rudolph Run”. What a guitar player Berry is. The opening and solo to this song are both very difficult. They’re not necessarily difficult scales to play, but he plays them so smoothly and with those harmonies. I guess he was talking about himself when he said, “He could play the guitar just like ringin’ a bell.”
This song is also in a higher register (for singing) than it would appear. I’m used to singing this live and really letting loose, but in a studio setting, it was a bit harder to get the energy needed without messing up the recording levels. So, I opted to stand a bit further away from the microphone and sang with more passion, even though the notes might not be 100% right all the time. It didn’t sound right singing it too “sweetly’.
Okay, come back tomorrow for the penultimate release in my Christmas series. Don’t forget to download each song you can listen every year!
Tonight, Chris and I bring you another acoustic-electric tune in Chuck Berry’s classic Christmas hit, “Run Rudolph Run”. And NO, that’s not “Run Run Rudolph” as many people (including me up to a couple years ago) think. I’m not sure why Berry titled it the way he did, but if that’s the way it is, you know the Laptop Sessions will stay true to the original.
I like this performance a lot because it gave me a chance to do a guitar solo, which I rarely get to do on these music videos. And this is a pretty rockin’ solo, too. It’s always so much fun to play it. But, to be honest, I’m actually not that huge of a fan of Chuck Berry’s version. I mean, I love the song, but his version is just so subdued. It sounds like a song that he just farted out in like two takes, then said, “It’s good. It’s like playing rock’n’roll into my eighties good,” and then left the studio.
I love his guitar playing style, though. It always sounds so effortless. I even have a Chuck Berry influenced guitar, but a string was broken and I was too lazy to play it. You can search for Masters of the Universe’s live version of this song to see me playing my Chuck Berry guitar!
Actually, I kind of have this “thing” against Chuck Berry for no good reason. One time, a long time ago, my mother went to Chuck Berry concert. They waited for HOURS for him to arrive, as he was late for one reason or another. Well, he came out, played like two songs, and left. She never forgave him.
I can’t believe it’s another Original Wednesday week for me starting on Sunday, which is when you’ll see me next. After I’m done with some other freelance work I’ve been doing, I’ll be able to devote a bit more time to promoting the Laptop Sessions and our new site, Cover-Songs.com, in hopes of increasing our site views by 50% by February. You know what would help the most? WORD OF MOUTH! So, tell your friends, blog about us, put a link on MySpace- DO ANYTHING and help us get the word out! The more excited we are, the more we’ll do for the site. And the more views we get, the more excited we are. So, I hope everyone will chip in and tell a friend about the Laptop Sessions.
Have a great night and we’ll all be looking forward to the weekend…not to mention great videos from Chris and Jeff. It’ll be “like having two weekend nights off before your next cover song music video” good!
