Tag Archives: unplugged

“Happy Tears” (Original Wednesday Song by Songwriter Jim Fusco)

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By Jim Fusco:

Tonight, it’s another Original Wednesday for me, Jim Fusco, where I play an original song from my now vast collection of well over 150. I’m excited about tonight’s, as it’s been one of my favorites since I wrote it back in 2002 or 2003. The original recorded version of this song, which you can listen to by clicking HERE, is rich with about ten of my voices singing in harmony. I even made a surround-sound version of this song with a music video, available by clicking HERE.

Everybody tells me that this is most “Beach Boys” sounding song I’ve written. And to tell you the truth, as with all of my songs, I didn’t write it with a specific style in mind. I never sit down and go, “Okay, Jim, time to write a Beach Boys song.” But, even I’ll admit that this is a Beach Boys-sounding song, especially with that interesting strumming pattern. It’s tough to play that and sing with it at the same time, but I’ve been playing this song for so long that I don’t even think about it anymore. This video was Take 1.

I wrote this song after my then-girlfriend (and now fiancee) Becky said the phrase “Happy Tears” and I found it so interesting that I put those words to this great tune that popped into my head one day. I think we were going through a time in our relationship where you’re thinking, “Man, I do NOT want to mess this up.” There’s always going to be issues to iron-out, and when you finally do, it’s almost hard to believe that everything worked out. But, looking back five years ago, it almost seems obvious that it would all work out.

Enjoy tonight’s Laptop Session and come back tomorrow for another great acoustic cover song by Chris Moore. Jeff will be back for a special Independence Day Session on Friday- will it be a patriotic song? I hope not- they’re always so cheesy. But, that’s my opinion. See you then!

“That’s Not Me” (The Beach Boys Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

“That’s Not Me” is track three of the pivotal album, “Pet Sounds” from 1966. My family got into the Beach Boys back in 1990 or 1991 because of this album. Of course, we listened to the greatest hits, but we were more interested in this well-crafted, deeper music that “Pet Sounds” brought to the table. Seventeen years later, “Pet Sounds” doesn’t stand as my favorite Beach Boys album- that title goes to a couple of others, including “Holland”, “Sunflower”, and “The Beach Boys (1985)”. But, I still love every single track off of “Pet Sounds”. One of the reasons I like those other albums better is because of the contributions from the other band members. On “Pet Sounds”, it’s really a Brian Wilson solo album, featuring Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, Carl Wilson, and Dennis Wilson on backing vocals.

But, then you get songs like “God Only Knows” that clearly benefited from Carl’s lead vocals and “That’s Not Me”, which benefited from Mike Love’s great lyrics and singing. This song is a great one to play on acoustic guitar and do a cover of because I didn’t have that feeling of stripping too much away from the song. This is a very personal-sounding song and I think it works great as an intimate cover music video. Of course, I plan on doing pretty much every song from “Pet Sounds”, but I arrived at this choice now because it’s the track that still hung on to that Brian Wilson/Mike Love writing tandem that put them on top in the early 60s.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s Laptop Session acoustic cover song and I hope you’ll come back to see another great cover music video from Chris Moore tomorrow!

NOTE: This video was remastered in 2020 for improved video and sound.

“Unchained Melody” (The Righteous Brothers Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to tonight’s Laptop Session acoustic cover song starring the one…the only…Jim Fusco! Wait, that’s me! 🙂

Well, we’re back to full swing here at the Sessions and the cover songs don’t stop comin’. I’m happy to bring this acoustic version of a great song by the Righteous Brothers- another “new” band to the video blog. “Unchained Melody” is one of those songs whose title has nothing to do with the song, other than maybe describing its less-than-repetitive structure. If anyone has any further insight, I’d love to hear it.

This is kind of a tribute song to my future wife, Becky, as she loves this song and will most likely be played at our wedding. Maybe I’ll have a cover band like us, but I usually opt for the original version of the song, which I suppose is kind of ironic.

I also suppose that doing a cover of this song is also one of those “standard” covers that everyone does. But, I had to do it because one night this song was brought up in conversation and I just picked up the guitar and played it straight through on the first try. I’d never played it before and it just flowed from the first chord. That’s when I realized that newfound skill. And it’s progressed since I started this music blog. Now, with most songs, I can just pick up the guitar and play it…and also tell what chord is being played by ear. Sounds a bit sensationalized, but Chris will attest.

NOTE: in 2019, this song was named the #1 song of the 1960’s by listeners of SiriusXM and 60’s on 6.  I suppose I can’t argue with that, though I still would’ve loved if California Girls, which came in at #5, would have taken the top spot. 🙂

Anyway, enjoy this acoustic cover song tonight and stay tuned for Chris’ session tomorrow- I’m sure you’ll be pleased!

“These Eyes” (The Guess Who Cover)

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Well, that was officially a project and a half. If you’re a regular Laptop Sessions Music Video Blog visitor, you probably wondered where the heck we went these past couple of days. Well, our Store was temporarily hacked by those people that send out the annoying “King of Nigeria” newsletters. So, we got tagged for SPAM, which caused our entire lineup of seven music websites to go down. We were locked out.

Of course, we kept our “One Cover Song Video A Day” streak alive on YouTube and are making up for lost time now. Our Google rankings (that we’ve obviously been working so hard for) are slipping or gone, and even some of our link partners have removed our link because they couldn’t find theirs on our site.

Anyway, we need to move away from that. I made changes that will hopefully prevent these kind of attacks from happening again- I especially didn’t need any help from the idiots I used to work with. Of course, we’re going to keep doing database backups of everything on our site just in case. We’ve worked literally thousands of combined hours on these sites and simply cannot afford to lose anything.

So, getting back on track, we have an acoustic cover song tonight from yet another “new” band to the Laptop Sessions: the Guess Who! This is one of their most famous songs, perhaps behind “American Woman” in popularity. “These Eyes” is known for its great muted organ/keyboard sound in the beginning of the song, which I’ve adapted for guitar. I think it came out great!

You may be thinking, “I’ve heard this song somewhere…” Well, if you’ve seen the joyously stupid movie “Superbad”, you might remember “These Eyes” from that scene where the kid, Evan, is forced to sing for all those stoned men. He chooses this song and sings a pretty hilarious version that all the guys seemed to love.

Well, my version, I hope, is much less hilarious. So, I hope you enjoy tonight’s cover song here on the Fusco-Moore Productions Music Video Blog! Hopefully we’ll REALLY see you tomorrow this time and get back to normal fast!