By Jim Fusco:
Hello everyone- it’s a Tuesday, so that mean’s it’s another edition of The Laptop Sessions and another acoustic cover song from me, Jim Fusco!Tonight, I bring you an oldie, but a goodie in Buddy Holly’s classic tune, “Maybe Baby”. You know, it’s funny- I can almost picture how Buddy wrote this song. He started playing an A chord, followed by an F#m chord, which is a nice change. I can tell that he really liked it and kept playing it over and over until the tune of, “Maybe baby, I’ll have you…” came into his head. The rest of the song is pretty formulaic after that.
But, that’s what I love so much about these very early rock’n'roll songs- it must’ve been great to have a wide-open slate because no one had done it before! So, even the simplest chord changes (like the one I just mentioned) became opportunities for new rock songs. I’m sure someone used that progression in jazz or another form of earlier music, but since Buddy was such a pioneer, he was the first to utilize such chord progressions in rock music.
Now, of course, Buddy Holly had the advantage of being one of the first to write modern rock’n'roll songs in this style, but it wasn’t easy. Having a blank slate seems great- “Oh, okay, I have every chord and no one has taken any of the potential melodies yet- this will be easy to write a song!” But, you have to remember that Buddy, unlike the rest of us, didn’t have a lot to draw from. He didn’t grow up listening to similar music like I did. He had to do it first, which is infinitely more difficult to do than when you have some prior knowledge to draw on.
So, even though “Maybe Baby” may not be the hardest or most complicated song, I still give the man all the credit in the world because he paved the way for so many others. I plan on starting a little Buddy Holly collection- I saw a really great CD retrospective once with all of his original, earliest recordings. That blows me away- there’s some songs in there from the early 50’s!
For this video, I tried to sing the song true to the original, but it’s tough to do that on a Buddy Holly song without having it sound like an imitation. Of course, I never want that. So, I tried singing just like myself, but threw in a few “hiccups” of Buddy Holly’s style in there. It was a lot of fun to record!
The busiest month of the year so far…and it’s only the first one! I keep telling myself, “Well, as soon as (insert major event here) is over, then things will go back to normal.” But, as soon as home life returns to normal, work life goes crazy, and vice-versa.
I hope you have a great week and stop back, if for nothing else than my next post next Tuesday!
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Related posts:
- “Not Fade Away” (Buddy Holly, Rolling Stones acoustic rock cover song) – The Guest Sessions
- “Baby I Need Your Loving” (Four Tops and Johnny Rivers Acoustic Cover Song) – The Laptop Sessions
- “Dream Lover” (Bobby Darin Acoustic Cover Song) – The Laptop Sessions
- The Laptop Sessions: “Carry On” (Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young Acoustic Rock Cover Song)
- The Laptop Sessions: “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” (Elvis Presley Acoustic Cover Song)
This is one in a series of acoustic cover songs, original music, and free mp3 downloads here on the Laptop Sessions Music Video Blog.
