Only the titles on the list are available.

J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again. 

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of appearing on the same radio show as “Weird Al” Yankovic … although I doubt he knows that. I did an interview with Tim "Timmy D" DeMoss on WFIL in Philadelphia. Earlier in the show, he interviewed Al, who was promoting his brand single, a new polka medley called “Polkamania!”

Both of us did phone-in interviews, so we never crossed paths. Tim informed me that he did tell Al about our recent parody, “You Can Call Weird Al” during the interview. Al knows who we are, but I don’t think he was aware of the parody, although his drummer, Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz, was. Tim played it during the last portion of the show when he was interviewing me. 


My family and I were at an indoor water park in Erie PA yesterday with ApX bassist Keith Haynie and his family. I had to excuse myself and go outside to do the interview, so I was standing in front of the building, still semi-wet, in my swim trunks and bare feet. That sounds like something Al would approve of, although he’d probably also wear goggles, flippers, and a lucky, lucky snorkel.  

We hope to release our 15th single of 2024 by the end of this weekend, Lord willing. 

We began our latest trip through the Bible on Wednesday, April 3.

Here's our Bible-reading plan for the next two weeks for those of you reading along with us:

Sat., July 20 - 2 Kings 16-18
Sun., July 21 - 2 Kings 19-21
Mon., July 22 - 2 Kings 22-25
Tue., July 23 - 1 Chronicles 1-3
Wed., July 24 - 1 Chronicles 4-6
Thu., July 25 - 1 Chronicles 7-9
Fri., July 26 - 1 Chronicles 10-12
Sat., July 27 - 1 Chronicles 13-15
Sun., July 28 - 1 Chronicles 16-18
Mon., July 29- 1 Chronicles 19-21
Tue., July 30 - 1 Chronicles 22-24
Wed., July 31 - 1 Chronicles 25-27
Thu., Aug. 1 - 1 Chronic5es 28-29
Fri., Aug. 2 - 2 Chronicles 1-3

Note: If you don't have a Bible handy, you can look up these passages for free on Bible Gateway. They have about 60 different English translations/versions there to choose from, plus translations in many other languages, many of which also have multiple translations/versions.

We recently revamped the downloadable version of our complete library. Now it comes in a PDF with pictures of every album and single for easy reference. You just click on the ones you need to download them instantly.

We're giving our complete library on download to everyone who donates $100 this week.

That's 1694 tracks, including various versions (studio, live, rarity, album, single, EP, revised, remastered, etc.), plus side projects ... even our most-recent single, “Got My Mindset From You / Media Circus" and our latest CD, Unchained Medley.

We recently got a brand new batch of ApologetiX USB thumb drives.

They contain the digital versions of all 74 of our CDs, plus any singles, EPs, or rarities that aren't on CD ... including our latest single.

Emblazoned with the band's logo, they have a storage capacity of 16 GB, and they’re write-enabled, so you can add more music to them if and when you get future ApX downloads.  

They’re available for a donation of $150 or more. If you've donated for our complete library before, they're available for a donation of $50 or more.

J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.
 
Here are the latest entries in the "albums that influenced me" series I started writing in May 2020.
 
Note: Just because an album appears on this list doesn't mean I give it a blanket endorsement. Many of the secular albums on this list are mainly there because they wound up being spoofed by ApologetiX.

1528. Outside Inside - The Tubes
The Tubes finally reached the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 with Outside Inside, their sixth studio LP and their second with producer David Foster, who had recently helped take Chicago back to the top of the charts with their #1 hit "Hard to Say I'm Sorry." Foster would go on to even greater acclaim producing artists such as Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston, Josh Groban, and Michael Bublé. But back to The Tubes. Released on April 4, 1983, Outside Inside also featured the group's only Top 10 pop hit, "She's a Beauty" (#10), which made it the whole way to #1 on the mainstream rock chart. Two other singles hit the Hot 100: "Tip of My Tongue" (#52 pop) and a remake of Major Lance's 1963 Top 10 hit "The Monkey Time" (#68 pop, #16 mainstream), written by Curtis Mayfield. The latter included additional vocals by Martha Davis of The Motels. "She's a Beauty" opened the album, but the second and third tracks, "No Not Again" and "Out of the Business," were almost as catchy. Other memorable cuts included "Wild Women of Wongo" and "Theme Park." As we used to say back in the '80s, totally tubular, dude. ApologetiX spoofed "She's a Beauty" in 2018. The following year, I read Foster's 2009 autobiography, Hitman: 40 Years Making Music, Topping the Charts, and Winning Grammys, and found it extremely informative and entertaining.  
 
1529. The Grey Album - Danger Mouse 
What do you get when you cross The Black Album by Jay-Z with "The White Album" by The Beatles? The Grey Album by Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Joseph Burton). You also get in trouble with The Beatles' record label, EMI ... but you get enough fame and critical acclaim to launch a successful career as an artist and producer. Released as a bootleg experimental LP in February 2004, The Grey Album featured mash-ups of all 12 songs on The Black Album and 14 of the 30 songs on "The White Album." Danger Mouse initially put out only 3000 copies, but the resulting legal hoopla caused 170 websites to offer The Grey Album as a free download, citing fair use. Over 100,000 copies were downloaded on February 24, 2004, designated as "Grey Tuesday." These days, you can easily find and listen to The Grey Album in its entirety on YouTube. The two most effective mash-ups to me were "December 4th" (with "Mother Nature's Son") and "99 Problems" (with "Helter Skelter"). The Beatles songs are a lot more chopped up and reorganized on The Grey Album than the music which eventually came out on the officially sanctioned Love Cirque de Soleil soundtrack in 2006, but this one seems to have laid the groundwork for that one. Entertainment Weekly went on to name the LP Album of the Year, and Danger Mouse went on to become a successful producer, who has since won multiple Grammys, working with artists as diverse as The Black Keys, U2, Norah Jones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gorillaz, Beck, and Adele,  He also teamed with singer CeeLo Greene to form the duo Gnarls Barkley, and their first single, "Crazy," hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the U.K. chart in 2006. 
 
1530. Greatest Hits - 2Pac 
Lesane Parish Crooks was born and raised in New York City, but eventually moved to California and became a leading figure in the West Coast hip-hop scene as rapper Tupac Shakur (a.k.a. 2Pac). Sadly, he died at age 25, the victim of a drive-by shooting on September 13, 1996, in Las Vegas NV. Released November 24, 1998, Greatest Hits was a double album featuring 25 tracks, four of them previously unreleased. It made it to #3 on the Billboard 200 and sold over five million copies in the United States. 2Pac's biggest hit was the double-sided single, "How Do U Want It" featuring K-Ci and JoJo / California Love" featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman (#1 pop, #1 R&B, #1 Rap). Both songs were featured on Greatest Hits, as were most of his other biggest hits up till that point: "Dear Mama" (#9 pop, #3 R&B, #1 Rap), "I Get Around" with Digital Underground (#11 pop, #5, R&B, #8 Rap), "Keep Ya Head Up" (#12 pop, #7 R&B, #2 Rap), "So Many Tears (#44 pop, #11 R&B, #3 Rap), "Temptations" (#68 pop, #12 R&B, #6 Rap), "Toss It Up" (#3 R&B, #1 Rap), "Hail Mary" (#10 R&B, #2 Rap), and "To Live & Die in L.A. (#16 R&B, #7 Rap). One of the previously unreleased tracks also became a hit, "Changes" (#32 pop, #12 R&B). It also won a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. 
 
1531. Life After Death - The Notorious B.I.G.
With my previous post about 2Pac, you might have anticipated this entry, seeing as the deaths of these two rappers occurred just six months apart, and their murders seemed to be linked. East Coast hip-hop artist Christopher George Latore Wallace (a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G.) released his first LP, Ready to Die, on September 13, 1994. The long-awaited follow-up, Life After Death, arrived in stores on March 25, 1997, just 16 days after he was killed in a drive-by shooting. A two-disc set (each approximately an hour long), it topped the Billboard 200 and sold over five million copies in the United States. The first single, "Hypnotize," had actually come out on March 4, 1997, five days before he died. Two months later, it became the first posthumous #1 hit for an artist since "(Just Like) Starting Over" by John Lennon in 1980. There had been three others before that: "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding in 1968, "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin in 1971, and "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce in 1973. Three additional singles have since joined that tragic list: "Slow Motion" by Juvenile featuring the late Soulja Slim in 2004, "Lollipop" by Lil Wayne featuring the late Static Major in 2008, and "Sad" by XXXTentacion in 2018. The second single from Life After Death, "Mo Money Mo Problems" (featuring Mase and Puff Daddy) also went to #1, making Biggie the only artist with two posthumous #1 hits — an unenviable distinction. The third single, "Going Back to Cali" (#26), would be his last Top 40 hit as lead artist. The Notorious B.I.G. also appeared posthumously as a featured artist on two #2 hits in '97, both by Puff Daddy, "Been Around the World" and "It's All About the Benjamins," although those songs were on Puff Daddy's debut LP, No Way Out, not Life After Death. "Hypnotize" sampled a previous #1 hit from 1979 — "Rise," by Herb Alpert. 
 
1532. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back - Public Enemy
East Coast political hip-hop group Public Enemy got their start on Long Island in New York in 1985, founded by MC Chuck D. (Carlton D. Ridenhour) and hype man Flavor Flav (William J. Drayton Jr.), who were then joined by rapper/minister of information Professor Griff (Richard Griffin) and DJ Terminator X (Norman Rogers). Those guys were all great at what they did — lyrics, vocal delivery, beats, samples — a prime example of how talented, dedicated people can effectively convey a message they feel passionate about to an audience that otherwise might never have paid attention. Personally, I find that inspirational in regard to what we try to do with Christian parodies in ApologetiX. Released June 28, 1988, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was Public Enemy's second studio LP. What a cool title! Three of the five singles hits Top 40, but none of them dented the U.S. Hot 100: "Rebel Without a Pause" (#37 U.K.), "Bring the Noise" (#32 U.K., #56 U.S. R&B), "Don't Believe the Hype" (#18 U.K., #18 U.S. R&B), "Night of the Living Baseheads" (#63 U.K., #62 U.S. R&B), and "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" (#86 U.S. R&B, #11 U.S. rap). Nevertheless, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back made it to #42 on the Billboard 200, selling 1.3 million copies domestically ... although there was nothing domesticated about their lyrics or music. In fact, thrash metal icons Anthrax released their own version of "Bring the Noise" in 1991 with vocals sampled from Public Enemy's original, and the two groups toured together after that.  
 
1533. Fear of a Black Planet - Public Enemy
Public Enemy's third studio LP, Fear of a Black Planet, hit the streets on April 10, 1990, and became their first Top 10 album, stopping at #10 on the Billboard 200. Like its predecessor, it sold 1.3 million copies in the United States. All five singles hit the U.K. pop chart and the U.S. rap chart, where two made it the whole way to #1: "Fight the Power" (#1 U.S. rap, #20 U.S. R&B, #29 U.K.) and "911 Is a Joke" (#1 U.S. rap, #15 U.S. R&B, #41 U.K.). The other three singles were: "Welcome to the Terrordome" (#3 U.S. rap, #15 U.S. R&B, #18 U.K.), "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" (#22 U.S. rap, #20 U.S. R&B, #46 U.K.), and "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man" (#11 U.S. rap, #53 U.K.). Public Enemy finally hit the U.S. Hot 100 in 1991 with "Can't Truss It" (#50 pop, #1 U.S. rap, #11 U.S. R&B, #22 U.K.), which sold half a million copies. Three years later, the group scored their only U.S. pop Top 40 with "Give It Up" (#33 U.S. pop, #5 U.S. rap, #30 U.S. R&B, #18 U.K.).
 
1534. Wordplay - ApologetiX
From a touring perspective, 2006 was the busiest year ApologetiX ever had — 136 concerts in 28 states. We've played more states than that in other years, but never as many concerts. However, we still managed to record an all-new studio CD, our first to fully feature drummer Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner. Released in early December, Wordplay was our 13th LP and consisted of 20 tracks spoofing 13 songs from 2003-05, two from the '80s, four from the '70s, and one from the '60s. Technically, one of those selections from the 2000s was a remake of a fifth '70s song — "Drift Away," a Top 10 smash for Uncle Kracker in 2003, with additional vocals by Dobie Gray, who'd reached the Top 10 with it himself in '73. Fittingly for an album whose title began with a "W," Wordplay contained parodies of six artists whose names also started with that letter: Joe Walsh, Weezer, Kanye West, Whitesnake, Stevie Wonder, and The Who. Believe it or not, I don't think we did it deliberately, either. Other acts covered included Trace Adkins, The Beatles, Big & Rich, Bon Jovi, Bowling for Soup, Green Day, Hoobastank, The Killers, Steve Miller, Nickelback, Daniel Powter, U2, and Velvet Revolver. Wordplay was our first project to have two country parodies on the same disc. It also included two rap parodies. Ironically, one of the tracks filled both roles. While we were working on Wordplay, we learned that a documentary film with the same name (about the 2005 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament) was slated to be released in June 2006, six months before our CD. Thankfully, you can't copyright a title. It only grossed about three million dollars but was for nominated multiple awards. I'm talking about the movie, not our CD, obviously.  

If you'd like to donate to the ministry of ApologetiX, there are a couple ways you can do it. 

If you prefer to mail a check or money order, please make it out to "ApologetiX" and send it to: 

ApologetiX
208 Charlemma Drive
Pittsburgh PA 15214-1414

Although the donations are not tax-deductible, they will be received very gratefully and used immediately. Thank you!