The BEST COVER SONGS of 2011 (The Year-End Review Awards)

By Chris Moore:

What better way to kick off a Monday at the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video blog than to unveil the Weekend Review’s picks for the top ten cover songs of 2011.  After all, this is kind of our thing.  And this has been a busy year for covers.  Not only were there two – not one, but two! – collections of Buddy Holly covers released as tribute to the legendary singer/songwriter in 2011, but there were also two covers EPs put out by Relient K.  This is not to mention Brian Wilson digging back to his childhood (farther back than the Gershwin brothers this time) for the inspiration to In the Key of Disney.

A regular amount of covers wasn’t enough for 2011.  No, no: 2011 needed more covers!  Now, as you’ll recall from our mission statement, it has always been the goal of this blog to put an end to the proliferation of bad covers on YouTube.  In keeping with that tradition, we will now take the time to recognize these non-YouTube covers that have demonstrated excellence this year, standing out from the pack of mediocre (or worse) ones:

1)  “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care” – Cee Lo Green (Cover of Buddy Holly)

2)  “Caroline No” – America (Cover of the Beach Boys)

3)  “Here Comes My Girl” – Relient K (Cover of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers)

4)  “Colors of the Wind” – Brian Wilson (Cover of the Disney song)

5)  “Baby” – Relient K (Cover of Justin Bieber)

6)  “Not Fade Away” – Florence and the Machine (Cover of Buddy Holly)

7)  “Interstate Love Song” – Relient K (Cover of Stone Temple Pilots)

8)  “It’s So Easy” – Paul McCartney (Cover of Buddy Holly)

9)  “Listen to Me” – Brian Wilson (Cover of Buddy Holly)

10) “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” – Brian Wilson (Cover of the Disney song)

 

Honorable Mention:

“Surf Wax America” – Relient K (Cover of Weezer)

“Lady Picture Show” (Stone Temple Pilots Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening to you. I hope you had a great and fulfilling weekend, and that you are starting off your week right by visiting us here at https://laptopsessions.com/!

Back to normal here, I bring you another song by Stone Temple Pilots, bringing the total of STP songs we have covered for the sessions to 5. This will be the first cover from STP’s third album “Tiny Music Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop”. We’ve had long song titles before, but not long album titles. I look forward to hearing some even longer titles.

Well anyway, tonight’s session is a single from the album called “Lady Picture Show”. Always a favorite of mine. I always thought this song and album were underrated. The track selection is unique and unlike anything from their library, and produced two of their best singles “Big Bang Baby” and “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart” (speaking of long song titles…).

This song translates well as an acoustic cover. My voice was a bit tired from baseball this weekend though (a whole lot of called strike 3’s can be tough on the vocal cords). I also said one wrong word in the final verse. It should be “she hides behind the bedroom door”, but I said “she hides behind the bedroom wall” instead.

I hope you enjoyed “Title Track” week, and if you found our series as a result of our article in the Record Journal today, we welcome you and hope you enjoy our series so much that you come back every day.

Also, as a side note, I crossed 15K views on Friday night, and this video marks my 60th Laptop Session! Don’t worry – there are plenty of acoustic cover videos to come from Chris, Jim, and myself!

Stay tuned for Jim’s latest and greatest session tomorrow. Have a great day!

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 original 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!

“Atlanta” (Stone Temple Pilots – Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Laptop Sessions. Since my first song from Stone Temple Pilots went over so well, I decided to do another one by them. There are a few songs on my list to do from them, and this was one of them.

The song is called “Atlanta” from their album No. 4. I learned to play this song 3 years ago and i’ve had a lot of time to practice it. This has been a favorite of all those I play it for.

You’ll notice a few weird things in this video, including a cameo by my wife, and my unscripted reaction to it.

Jim joins us Friday for another awesome addition to The Laptop Sessions.

Oh, and a side note – broke 2,000 views yesterday. Perhaps 3k is coming soon?

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 original 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!

“Big Empty” (STP Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

And returning after a long absence…me!

And finally, a song from a band I’ve liked since I first heard their single “Plush” on the radio – Stone Temple Pilots.

There are a lot of songs from them I’d like to do for The Laptop Sessions, and among that long list is this classic from their album “Purple”.

This is also the first video I’ve done since acquiring a Canon Powershot digital camera, which considerably improves the video quality from one of the possibly worst uses of $20 (other than having someone light you on fire – never quite understood that one).

I hope you enjoy this. Also, I’ll take this time to comment – I’VE BEEN COMPARED TO BRIAN WILSON!

Well, indirectly, but it was on YouTube, so that counts in my mind!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Laptop Session installment!

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 original 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!