Another milestone here on the best music video blog online: the Laptop Sessions! It’s been just over a year doing videos for me and I’m happy to say that I’m at 150,000 YouTube views! I know that’s not a whole heck of a lot compared to some of the INDIVIDUAL videos that are on YouTube, but for a guy from CT, it’s pretty cool. I wonder when I’ll hit half a million or even a million? How cool would that be?
Thank you, as always, to all of our loyal fans. We’re nearing the end of the Session-a-day project, but are looking forward to our once a week (each) schedule for 2009. That way, I’ll have more time to write on the blog and we’ll all have more time to perfect our videos.
I love when these milestones are so close together, as Jeff posted yesterday about his latest YouTube count. I thought I would follow suit with a similar, albeit shorter, list describing my Top 5 highest viewed Laptop Sessions videos. I do have a couple of my “How To” videos topping my overall list- the Top 5 Laptop Sessions cover songs videos are as follows:
“I’m So Lonely” (The Beach Boys) – 5968 views
This is exactly what the Laptop Sessions is all about: taking a song that everyone wrote off previously and turning it into an acoustic song. This way, you get to hear the actual song and, in this case, not the cheesy mid-80s production.
“Do You Want To Know A Secret” (The Beatles) – 4541 views
Can’t explain this one. I don’t even truly love this song- it’s just one that was a nice song that I thought would translate well on my nylon string guitar. But, this is one of my oldest videos, so I can only hope that it’s a trend- the longer my videos are online, the faster they’ll get more views!
“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (The Beach Boys) – 4075 views
You know why this song is in the top three? Because I can hit the notes. I don’t mean to sound pretentious, but honestly, that’s what separates my video from every other so-called “cover” on YouTube. But, then again, that’s what we all try to accomplish on a daily basis here!
“You May Be Right” (Billy Joel) – 3948 views
I can’t believe this one. I honestly did it because I love the song, but didn’t think it would end up in my top 5! I think it’s because I turned an electric song acoustic…and that I have a ton of energy in this one.
“Let It Ride” (Bachman Turner Overdrive) – 3968 views
This one’s the most surprising of them all. The other videos were added six months or more ago. This one? Three months. I think this video’s popularity follows the same logic of “You May Be Right”, as I took an electric song, used an acoustic, and let it ride!
Of course, I look forward to the next milestone, as it’ll be a big one: 150,000! Congrats to Jeff and we’re both looking forward to Chris’ next YouTube view round number!
**I hit 120,000 YouTube video views today! It’s another milestone and another testament to the popularity and success of the Laptop Sessions!**
Sorry for the late post tonight, but the video has been up on YouTube now for over 24 hours. I had to record the video late last night and publish it because I had a very, very busy day today. At least it wasn’t work! I had my usual “Luncho Marx”, followed by a trip to Becky’s house, a trip to my cousin Louie’s house, a trip to get my cousin Sarah (and see my cousin Gerry, of course), and then finally a trip up to Mohegan Sun casino for shopping, gambling, and a concert with one of my favorite bands: America! I got to get a t-shirt signed by Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley- always exciting!
I had fun playing on the new Star Trek slot machines, but not nearly as much fun as Chris “I win at everything I try except for PS2 baseball” Moore, who won big. I then had the task of dropping everyone off and am finally home. We had a great dinner tonight, too, at Sol Toro restaurant, which is a great authentic Mexican place. They have the best guacamole you’ll ever taste. The lime and the cilantro made it for me.
Tonight’s song is a great, albeit sad, one from Warren Zevon. Unless you’re a fan of his “Best Of” compilations and some of his albums, you’ve probably never heard of this song. It’s my favorite from him. I truly only listened to the “Best Of” CD, but I listened to it a lot. This song stood out the most.
One thing that I DON’T like about the song is one line in the chorus. He says, “Searching for a heart…searching everyone…they say love conquers all…you can’t start it like a *****…you can’t stop it with a gun.”
Okay, I bleeped out the word (don’t worry- it’s not a swear). Now, you would think by reading that line that the words “everyone” and “gun” would rhyme. They do! Now, that would leave the other two lines to rhyme: “conquers all” and the word in asterisks.
For me, I always thought that word was “call”. The idea I had was that love isn’t just something you can start up instantly like making a phone call. “Call” rhymes with “all”, so I thought it made sense.
As usual, I’m wrong, but I can’t understand why.
Instead, Zevon says, “You can’t start it like a car”. Same sentiment as mine, right? You can’t just turn love on like a light switch…or like starting a car…or like picking up the phone.
But it doesn’t rhyme! Since when does “all” rhyme with “car”? So, when I found that out, I was a little disappointed. But, it doesn’t take away the fact that I love this song and that it’s got a great message to it. Yes, I may have rhymed differently, but no one ever said Zevon was an “ordinary” guy like I’d like to think I am when it comes to matters like this.
Okay, I think I’m making less and less sense now, seeing that it’s 4 am. It’s time for bed and I have to just pray that tomorrow’s lunch meeting (our usual Burger King lunch today was halted by the fact that they LITERALLY had a sign on the door that read, “No beef or grilled chicken”) doesn’t begin with a call from Stuffy D. Bear at 10:30 am saying, “I’m hungry” over and over again! 🙂 See you folks on Tuesday for another great acoustic cover song from yours truly, Jim Fusco.
Definitely not meant to show up Chris Moore’s acoustic cover song tonight, but I just found out that I reached 110,000 YouTube video views. I’m very excited about it and hope that this number continues to rise somewhat exponentially. It’s only been about 20 days or so since my milestone of 100,000 acoustic cover song and original music video views on YouTube, so it’s exciting to get another 10,000 so quickly.
I’ve said it before that I won’t feel like the “big time” until I get to 1,000,000 views. It’s going to take a while. But, whereas it took me nine months to get 100,000, I don’t think it’s going to take 81 more months to get to a million. I sincerely believe that I’ll be staring a half million in the face sometime next year.
Thanks to all who watch these videos and, to echo Jeff’s sentiment, come back on a daily basis to keep viewing more. I’ll keep you posted on new milestones as they arrive!
