New CD Arrives Early, Ships to Fans, BOGO

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.

1682. Decent Alternative - ApologetiX

The 60th ApologetiX LP, Decent Alternative, came out in mid-October 2020. I envisioned it as the third in a series, following Ticked in 1997 and Apoplectic in 2014. All three exclusively featured music from the 90’s, particularly the alternative movement that helped define the decade. From 2015–18, we released 20 other parodies from the 90’s that could have qualified for another volume in the series, but we ended up releasing them on other CDs with songs from other decades. In early 2019, however, we decided to start holding back our subsequent 90’s alternative-rock parodies for this project. Some of our fans who grew up in that era took notice and had been eagerly anticipating this release. Half of the parodies on it were originally written (although they were later extensively rewritten) as potential candidates for the original Ticked CD. At least a third of the other parodies spoofed songs we had considered for Ticked. We originally planned to call this CD “Eclectic,” to follow with the “tic/ticked” theme, but we worried that people might misread it as “Electric.” We also wondered if the music was eclectic enough to merit that title, since all the tracks spoofed songs from 1992–98. Furthermore, it didn’t seem to have the “angry” songs that helped inspire the titles of Ticked and Apoplectic. Rather, it’s a collection of alternative parodies with decent, God-fearing lyrics. Hence the title, Decent Alternative. Five of the 12 artists spoofed on this project have names that start with letter "S": Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Sublime, Matthew Sweet, and Sugar Ray. The other seven were Bush, Counting Crows, Gin Blossoms, Hole, No Doubt, Pearl Jam, and Tonic. As we'll see later on this list, ApologetiX did eventually release an album called Eclectic in 2023.

1683. Overdue Books - ApologetiX

Did you hear the one about the guy who was dating a librarian and showed up late to their date with some books he’d borrowed? He asked how he could make it up to her, and she told him it would all be fine. Believe it or not, the second concert ApologetiX ever played was in a library (at a local school). There’s even a photo to prove it. We also played a couple concerts in a little town called Library within our first year. That’s right: Three library/Library shows before our first anniversary. However, we haven't booked any since then, so we’re overdue. But that’s not why we called this project Overdue Books. It included songs about five books of the Bible we’d never covered in detail in our first 28 years: Ecclesiastes ("Coming With Age"), Song of Solomon ("Sermon in a Love Song"), 1 and 2 Thessalonians ("Thessalonians Letters"), and Numbers ("If You Don't Look at Numbers"). Those books were overdue. It also featured two songs about Bible books that contain apocalyptic prophecies that may seem overdue — Daniel ("Daniel's Visions") and 1 and 2 Thessalonians (the aforementioned "Thessalonians Letters") — although they’ll surely come true. Nevertheless, if you know Jesus, it will all be fine. Released in late December 2020, Overdue Books, was the 61st ApologetiX LP, and featured parodies of After the Fire, The Beatles, Blue Öyster Cult, Damn Yankees, Foreigner, Howard Jones, Little River Band, Marshall Tucker Band, Spirit, Steely Dan, and Trisha Yearwood.

1684. Barenaked for the Holidays - Barenaked Ladies

Despite the suggestive title, there's not much naughty about this album. Released on October 5, 2004, Barenaked for the Holidays features 20 tracks, seven of which were composed by band members, with the rest being holiday standards. Most of them are Christmas tunes, but there are also three Hannukah songs — "Hanukkah Blessings," Hanukkah, O Hanukkah," and "I Have a Little Dreidel" (sung by founding member Steven Page, who grew up in a Jewish family) — and the New Year's Eve standard "Auld Lang Syne." Two famous fellow Canadians added guest vocals — Sarah McLachlan on the traditional "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings" and Michael Bublé on an original humorous number, "Elf's Lament." Three other tunes are instrumentals that sound like they were recorded using an old keyboard-type organ with built-in drum machine — the kind you used to see for sale at organ stores in the mall in the '80s — "O Holy Night," "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and a delightfully cheesy cover of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime." There's also a more serious-sounding instrumental keyboard version of "Carol of the Bells," and an amusing wordless-but-quite-vocal rendition of "Sleigh Ride." Barenaked for the Holidays opens with "Jingle Bells," which starts out like an easy-listening number but soon kicks into high gear and eventually includes the "Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg" alternate chorus many of us learned in grade school. My kids loved it. The second track, "Green Christmas," was originally featured ln the soundtrack for the 2000 movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey, although it was rerecorded for this album. It's quite catchy, and has a jaw-droppingly funny moment about two minutes into the song. I also recommend "Christmas Time (Oh Yeah)," "Christmas Pics," and "Deck the Stills," a hilarious rendition of "Deck the Halls" that has nothing to do with moonshine but everything to do with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Speaking of super-groups, don't miss BNL's remake of "Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band Aid. Barenaked for the Holidays went to #64 on the Billboard 200 and #26 on the Canadian albums chart.

1685. Everything I Own: Their Finest Moments - Bread

In February 2021, I read a very detailed 320-page biography of the '70s soft-rock group Bread published in September 2019, Bread: A Sweet Surrender: The Musical Journey of David Gates, James Griffin & Co. by Malcolm C. Searles. I was familiar with Bread's hits and had already covered the 1973 LP The Best of Bread within my first month of writing entries for this series of influential albums, but Searles' book made me want to take a deeper dive into their catalogue. Released on April 19, 2019, Everything I Own: Their Finest Moments contained all 13 of Bread's Hot 100 singles, from 1970-77. Twelve of those reached the pop Top 40, and 11 made the adult contemporary Top Five: "Make It With You" (#1 pop, #4 AC), "Baby I'm-A Want You" (#3 pop, #1 AC), "If" (#4 pop, #1 AC), "Everything I Own" (#5 pop, #3 AC), "Lost Without Your Love" (#9 pop, #3 AC), "It Don't Matter to Me" (#10 pop, #2 AC), "The Guitar Man" (#11 pop, #1 AC), "Diary" (#15 pop, #3 AC), "Sweet Surrender" (#15 pop, #1 AC), "Aubrey" (#15 pop, #4 AC), "Let Your Love Go" (#28 pop), "Mother Freedom" (#37 pop), and "Hooked on You" (#60 pop, #2 AC). However, Everything I Own: Their Finest Moments, had 17 additional tracks, including selections from all six of their studio albums. There was so much good stuff among the "deep cuts" that it made me wish I'd known all those songs before I'd read the book rather than vice versa. If you're only familiar with Bread's hits, as I was, you're missing out on so much of what they had to offer. I used to think of them primarily as David Gates' band, since he sang lead on everything you hear on the radio. But co-founder James Griffin also sang lead vocals, played guitar, keyboards, and piano, and wrote many great songs for the group. Whereas the Gates songs were generally poppy and upbeat (with notable exceptions like "Everything I Own," "Diary," "Lost Without Your Love," and "Aubrey"), Griffin's contributions had an edge and were not so lovey-dovey. I see him kind of as a John Lennon figure to Gates' Paul McCartney. I particularly liked these songs he sang: "The Last Time," "Truckin'," "Down on My Knees," "Friends and Lovers," "Too Much Love," "Look What You've Done," "Just Like Yesterday," "Fancy Dancer," "She's the Only One," and "Any Way You Want Me," most of which he co-wrote with fellow original Bread member Robb Royer. Another great tune Griffin sang was "Picture in Your Mind," written by Larry Knechtel. That's not to disparage David Gates, though; he's a great singer and songwriter, and it's no wonder his compositions were consistently picked by the record label to be the singles. Moreover, some of his non-hits and lesser hits are among my favorite slices of Bread: "Dismal Day," "London Bridge," "Let Your Love Flow," "Mother Freedom," "He's a Good Lad," and "Daughter." Without Gates, Bread would be toast ... but Griffin's contributions deserved more attention than they got.

1686. Get Rich Quick - ApologetiX

In early August 2021, we released the 62nd ApologetiX LP, our first in over seven months, which is an eternity in ApX time. Proverbs 13:11 (NLT) says, “Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time.” So why on earth was this album titled Get Rich Quick? In the fall of 2020, ApologetiX drummer/engineer Jimmy “Vegas” Tanner and his wife, Eve, relocated and began building a bigger, better Red Apple Audio Workshop — the studio where the drums, vocals, and many other parts of ApX parodies are recorded. While that was going on, Jimmy didn’t have time or space to record acoustic drums, so we spoofed a series of songs from 1983-86, a time when keyboards were king, synths were prince, and electronic drums were everywhere. ApX keyboardist Rich Mannion played keys and programmed the drums for every track. On more than half of them, he supplied backing vocals, and even played guitars on a couple. Hence our battle cry for this project was basically “Get Rich quick!” A lot of people got rich quick in the 80’s through music, movies, sports, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street. Many made millions. Speaking of which, Rich has been so valuable to us that we could call him The Six Million Dollar Mannion, but he’s actually priceless. “This CD has been a labor of love for me,” he said at the time. ”I finally found what I’m supposed to be doing with the gifts God has given me. My heart is truly full.” Get Rich Quick featured parodies of The Cars, Culture Club, Billy Idol, Kajagoogoo, Kenny Loggins, Mr. Mister, John Parr, Pet Shop Boys, Michael Sembello, Thompson Twins, Wham!, and Matthew Wilder.

1687. From the Corner - Tom Milnes
Tom Milnes (rhymes with "illness") is the "Joe Walsh of ApologetiX," an incredibly funny guitar whiz who had a successful solo career long before joining us. I first met him back in the '90s, when he was in a critically acclaimed Pittsburgh-area Christian band called H3O. They finally played the Paradise Club in March 20, 1993 (a year after we debuted there), but it was one of the rare times I was not in attendance, because ApologetiX was playing a concert elsewhere that night. H3O came back on September 25, 1993, and I think that's when I met Tom for the first time. He also did a couple solo concerts at the Club on June 11, 1994 and August 20, 1994. I ran into him a couple of times at local events later in the '90s and exchanged some emails with him in '99. When Bill Hubauer, who was playing keyboards and guitar for us at the time, told me in 2008 that he intended to leave ApologetiX, we started looking for somebody to take his place. God gave us a double-blessing, as Tom Milnes joined in October and Tom Tincha followed in November. It's a pretty cool story how I reconnected with Mr. Milnes, but I don't have time to relate it here. However, we met for lunch in Zelienople PA, and I gave him a copy of the latest ApX CD at the time, Future Tense, and he gave me a copy of his latest solo release, From the Corner, which had just come out recently. I was impressed; in addition to his guitar-playing skills and great voice, he's a dynamic songwriter, with lyrics full of heart, humility and humor. From the Corner opened with two excellent tracks, "The Corner" and "Shine Young One," the latter of which Tom wrote for his son, Eric. The album closed with the beautiful and poignant "Your Move." Other highlights included "Side of the Road" (a modern retelling of the parable of The Good Samaritan), "Organ Donor Blues," "When I Was Your Age," "Model Prisoner," and the exquisite instrumental "Corner'Yar." I also enjoyed "Broken-Hearted Girl," which Tom wrote for his daughter, Sheila. As I've told him multiple times, he sounds uncannily like Ray Davies of The Kinks on that particular number.

1688. Nancy's Greatest Hits - Nancy Sinatra

The eldest of Frank Sinatra's three children, Nancy Sinatra achieved a whopping 13 Top 50 singles in a two-year span between early 1966 and early '68, including a couple #1 hits — "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" and "Something Stupid," a duet with her famous father. Nancy's Greatest Hits, released in 1970, contained 10 of them. In addition to "Boots" and "Stupid," it featured "Sugar Town” (#5 pop, #1 adult contemporary), "How Does That Grab You, Darlin’?” (#7), "Jackson” with Lee Hazlewood (#14), "Lightning's Girl” (#24), "Some Velvet Morning” with Lee Hazlewood (#26), "Friday's Child” (#36), "You Only Live Twice" (#44 pop, #3 AC), and "Summer Wine” with Lee Hazlewood (#49). The only hits missing were "Love Eyes" (#15), "Lady Bird" with Lee Hazlewood (#20), and "In Our Time" (#46). I'm not sure why the Top 20 hits "Love Eyes" and "Lady Bird" didn't make the cut, but a non-charting duet with Frank's Rat Pack pal Dean Martin, "Things," did. Hazlewood produced all of Nancy's Top 50 hits except for "Somethin' Stupid" and "You Only Live Twice," and he wrote all of them aside from those two and "Jackson." Her four duets with him are among my favorite Nancy numbers, particularly "Some Velvet Morning" and "Summer Wine." I also really like "You Only Live Twice," from the 1967 James Bond film of the same name. And good luck getting "sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-Sugar Town" out of your head after you've heard it. ApologetiX spoofed "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" in 2016.