"I wanted to reach out and thank all of you for serving the kingdom in all the ways that Jesus has led you over the many years. ApologetiX has had such a profound impact on my life ever since I was a kid, and it's so encouraging to see you all are still going strong.” 

Ordinarily, we would plan to release our 18th single of 2024 by the end of this weekend. However, because we have the huge concert at Immortal Fest on Sunday night, the single probably will not come out until Wednesday night at the earliest. 
Once the new single is released, we'll announce it in our news bulletin, on our website, and on our Facebook page.

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:


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.

Our new ApologetiX USB thumb drives are now in stock!

The USBs contain the digital versions of all 74 of our CDs, plus any singles, EPs, or rarities that aren't on CD, including our latest, “Smells Like Mean Assyrians / Crowd of Foreign Girls."

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.

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 1698 tracks, including various versions (studio, live, rarity, album, single, EP, revised, remastered, etc.), plus side projects ... even our most-recent single, “Smells Like Mean Assyrians / Crowd of Foreign Girls," and our latest CD, ApologetiX ‘74.

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.

1570. Recovery - ApologetiX 
The 16th ApologetiX LP, Recovery, finally made it into the hands of our fans in September 2009. It was our first to feature contributions from two new members, guitarists Tom Milnes and Tom Tincha, who had both joined us in the fall of 2008. However, we had actually recorded the basic tracks at Studio L in Weirton WV in late June 2008, before those guys joined, so Bill Hubauer still played most of the guitars and all of the keyboards on this album. That studio was (and still is) owned and operated by Rick Witkowski, who acted as engineer on our session, with assistance by Anthony Rankin. Rock fans may recognize Rick as the lovable talented guitarist for both the B.E. Taylor Group and Crack the Sky. In fact, in 2024, Bill Hubauer joined Crack the Sky himself. Speaking of famous rock groups (and one notable solo artist), Recovery featured a dozen parodies of songs from 1976-79 (sequenced in chronological order) by Kiss, Kansas, Queen, Styx, Bob Welch, Toto, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Journey, Bad Company, and ELO. In ApologetiX, we try to be all things to all men so that by all means we might save some (1 Corinthians 9:22). Consequently, we play many styles of music, but that doesn’t mean we all have the same tastes. One style we all agree on is late-1970s classic rock. We grew up with it, and thanks to Guitar Hero and Rock Band a whole new generation has grown up with it as well. So that was our focus on this CD — playing music that mattered to us then, while singing about what matters to us now. When naming this project, we considered the albums the original songs came from, and decided to spoof ELO’s Discovery as Recovery. We all loved our parody of “Don’t Bring Me Down,” and now we could close our album with it as ELO did. We even spoofed the Discovery cover art, replacing the original Aladdin-type character holding a multi-colored ELO disc with ApX bassist Keith Haynie holding a similarly colored Simon electronic game, a toy that was introduced in 1978. One of Merriam-Webster’s definitions for “recover” is “to save from loss and restore to usefulness.” That’s what Christ did for us and what we try to do with our parodies. The Bible says we were once dead in our sins but are now alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:4–5). That’s quite a recovery! Although in some senses ApologetiX does cover versions of other people’s music, we cover them in a new way, so recovery seemed appropriate in that sense, too. Best of all, now ApologetiX can officially be called a Recovery group. As Romans 11:11a says: “Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all!” 
 
1571. Time Stand Still - The Hooters
Fans of The Hooters had to wait a decade and a half for the group's first studio LP since 1993's Out of Body ... and some fans had to wait longer than others. Time Stand Still initially appeared at concerts during The Hooters' summer tour of Europe in June-August 2007, then was officially released in Germany, Austria, and Sweden in September 2007. It finally came out in the United States in February 2008. They music made it seem like time really had stood still; the band sounded just as great as they did in their '80s heyday, and the songs were just as strong. As with previous projects, The Hooters selected a stellar opener, "I'm Alive," but what followed was excellent as well, beginning with the title track. The second half of the album contained many of my other favorite moments, including "Where the Wind May Blow," "Catch of the Day," "Free Again," and the delightful hidden-track closer, "White Jeans." This is probably my third favorite Hooters album, after One Way Home and Nervous Night.
 
1572. Greatest Hits - Slade
They couldn't spell well, but Slade made the grade when the talk turned to rock. I posted an entry about their 1973 greatest-hits LP Sladest quite some ago. It had 14 tracks, eight of which made the U.K. Top 40. This 1999 compilation was a lot more comprehensive and covered the British glam band's career from 1971-91. All 21 tracks made the U.K. Top 40, and six of them reached #1: "Coz I Luv You" (#1 U.K.), "Take Me Back 'Ome" (#1 U.K., #97 U.S.), "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" #1 U.K., #76 U.S.), "Cum On Feel the Noize" (#1 U.K., #98 U.S.), "Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me" (#1 U.K.), and "Merry Xmas Everybody" (#1 U.K.). Note that every single one of those had a least one word in the title that wouldn't have passed muster on a grammar test. Greatest Hits featured nine other U.K. Top 10 hits, two of which entered the U.S. Top 40: "Gudbuy T'Jane" (#2 U.K., #68 U.S.), "My Friend Stan" (#2 U.K.), "Far Far Away" (#2 U.K.), "My Oh My" (#2 U.K., #37 U.S., #33 U.S. mainstream rock), "Everyday" (#3 U.K.), "The Bangin' Man" (#3 U.K., #91 U.S.), "Look Wot You Dun" (#4 U.K.), "Run Runaway' (#7 U.K., #20 U.S., #1 U.S. mainstream), and "We'll Bring the House Down" (#10 U.K.). The other tracks were: "In for a Penny" (#11 U.K.), "How Does It Feel" (#15 U.K.), "All Join Hands" (#15 U.K.), "Get Down and Get With It" (#16 U.K.), "Radio Wall of Sound" (#21 U.K.), and "Lock Up Your Daughters (#29 U.K.). Only three of Slade's Top 40 hits were missing: Thanks for the Memory" (#7 U.K.), "Let's Call It Quits" (#11 U.K.), "My Baby Left Me/That's All Right" (#32 U.K.). Ironically, each of those was spelled correctly.
 
1573. Classic Hits: A Celebration of Marc & Mickey - T. Rex
At the height of their popularity in the early '70s, T. Rex inspired a phenomenon in the United Kingdom akin to Beatlemania that came to be called "T. Rextasy." Conversely, across the pond, the group was name-checked in twice as many U.S. Top 40 singles as they had of their own. In Mott the Hoople's 1972 hit "All the Young Dudes" (#37 U.S., #3 U.K.), written by David Bowie, lead vocalist Ian Hunter sang, "I need TV when I got T. Rex." In The Who's 1981 hit "You Better You Bet" (#18 U.S. pop, #9 U.K., #1 U.S. mainstream rock), written by Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey sang, "but I drunk myself blind to the sound of old T. Rex." The only song by T. Rex that most Americans know is "Get It On" (#1 U.K., #10 U.S.) which was retitled "Bang a Gong" here in the States to avoid confusion with another song called "Get It On" by Chase which had reached #24 seven months earlier. However, T. Rex had 14 U.K. Top 20 hits from 1970-76. Released on June 23, 2008, Classic Hits: Celebration of Marc & Mickey featured a dozen of them. In addition to "Get It On," there was "Telegram Sam" (#1 U.K., #67 U.S.), "Hot Love" (#1 U.K., #72 U.S.), "Ride A White Swan" (#2 U.K., #76 U.S.), "Jeepster" (#2 U.K.), "Children of the Revolution" (#2 U.K.), "Solid Gold Easy Action" (#2 U.K.), "20th Century Boy" (#3), "Groover" (#4 U.K.), "I Love To Boogie" (#13 U.K.), "Teenage Dream" (#13 U.K.), and "New York City" (#15 U.K.). I'm not sure why, but Classic Hits: A Celebration of Marc & Mickey is missing "Metal Guru" (#1) and "Truck On (Tyke) "(12 U.K.). The album had 15 tracks, so it's not like there wasn't room for them. As far as the music was concerned, my favorites were "Telegram Sam," "Ride a White Swan," "Hot Love," "Groover," "Jeepster," and, of course, "Bang a Gong (Get It On)." The Marc and Mickey referred to in the title were T. Rex's most famous members, lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Marc Bolan and backing vocalist/percussionist Mickey Finn, both of whom died too soon — Bolan at age 29 in 1977 and Finn in age 55 in 2003. Of the members in the band's line-up during their glory years, only drummer Bill Legend is still alive. Bassist Steve Currie died at age 33 in 1981.  
  
1574. Golden Classics - Free Movement
Despite the implications of this album's title, The Free Movement really only had one song that could be considered a classic — "I've Found Someone of My Own" (#5 pop, #7 adult contemporary, #20 R&B) in 1971. The follow-up single, "The Harder I Try (The Bluer I Get)" (#50 pop, #6 AC, #49 R&B), marked the L.A. vocal group's final foray into the Hot 100. Both were featured on their debut (and only non-compilation) LP, I've Found Someone of My Own. It stalled at #167 on the Billboard 200 but got to #26 on the R&B album chart. The third single from that record, a cover of the Stephen Stills hit "Love the One You're With," did not chart ... and neither did the group's fourth and final single, "I Can't Move No Mountains," which was not on the album. All four of those songs, however, made it onto this compilation. Released in 1996 by the Collectibles record label (the largest U.S. independently owned reissue label), Golden Classics featured all 11 tracks from the original I've Found Someone of My Own LP, in the same order, with two additional tracks at the end, the aforementioned "I Can't Move No Mountains" and its flip side "Every Step of the Way." As you might guess, the reason I bought this CD (in 2009) was for "I've Found Someone of My Own," an elusive entry on my playlist of #5 hits. Not only was I unable to find it on any various-artists compilation, I have no memory of ever hearing it on the radio, even as a seven-year-old kid when it was on the charts. With all that being said, it and the other tracks on Golden Classics have a sweet early-seventies sound that takes me back to my childhood.
 
1575. Super Hits of the '70s - Have a Nice Day Volume 1 - Various Artists
Considering the fact that I've already covered the majority of the 25 volumes in the Super Hits of the '70s - Have a Nice Day series, it's ironic that I'm only now getting to the one that started it all ... but I didn't purchase it until October 2009. You might expect all the selections to come from 1970, but half of them were leftovers from June-December 1969: "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam (#1), "Baby It's You" by Smith (#5), "Smile A Little Smile For Me" by The Flying Machine (#5), "Tracy" by The Cuff Links (#9), "More Today Than Yesterday" by Spiral Starecase (#12), and "Cherry Hill Park" by Billy Joe Royal (#15). Nevertheless, I'm sure radio stations were still playing those singles in 1970. The other half of the songs peaked in 1970, though: "Venus" by The Shocking Blue (#1), "The Rapper" by The Jaggerz (#2), "Arizona" by Mark Lindsay (#10), "Early In The Morning" by Vanity Fare (#12), "Come Saturday Morning" by The Sandpipers (#17), and"Mississippi Queen" by Mountain (#21). The biggest selling point for the Have a Nice Day series was not the average chart position of the singles it selected, but the relative difficulty of finding those tunes on other various-artists collections. My favorite cuts are probably "Come Saturday Morning" and "Baby It's You." The latter was originally done by The Shirelles (who had a Top 10 hit with it) and famously covered by The Beatles on their U.K. debut LP, Please Please Me. I'm a big Beatles fan, but I think Smith's smoldering version blows them away. And I love the title of the album from whence it came: A Group Called Smith. ApologetiX has spoofed "Venus" (both The Shocking Blue's version and Bananarama's remake) and "Mississippi Queen."
 
1576. Super Hits of the '70s - Have a Nice Day Volume 2 - Various Artists
I ordered Super Hits of the '70s - Have a Nice Day Volume 2 on the same day as Volume 1. Whereas half of the tracks on that one were hits in 1969, every song on this reached its highest position in 1970. Speaking of which, three of them plateaued at #5: "Hitchin 'A Ride" by Vanity Fare, "Love Grows" by Edison Lighthouse, and "Ma Belle Amie" by Tee-Set. More unusually, three others stopped at #13: "For The Love Of Him" by Bobbi Martin, "My Baby Loves Lovin'" by White Plains, and "United We Stand" by The Brotherhood of Man. All of the other selections peaked at unique positions: "Everything Is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens (#1), "Which Way You Going Billy?" by The Poppy Family (#2), "Spirit In The Sky" by Norman Greenbaum (#3), "Reflections of My Life" by The Marmalade (#10), "Lay A Little Lovin' on Me" by Robin McNamara (#11), and "Little Green Bag" by George Baker Selection (#21) ApologetiX spoofed "Spirit in the Sky" in 1998 and "Hitchin' a Ride" in 2023. I get burned out on songs I have to listen to over and over while writing and singing parodies, so I can't be objective about those two anymore, but I loved them before that. My favorites among the remaining 10 tracks are "Love Grows," a song I adored as a little kid, and "Little Green Bag," which I first heard on my K-Tel Goofy Greats LP in 1978 (this version is longer, no surprise), although it experienced a resurgence in popularity when it was used in the 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs.

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!