J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again. Here are the stories behind the songs on our 18th single of 2024: 

CAN’T DO IT MYSELF

I loved this tune back in the '80s. The original version of "Dancing With Myself," credited to Billy Idol's former band, Generation X, went to #62 on the U.K. chart in 1980. I first read about it in The Book of Rock Lists in '81. A remix released under Idol's name went to #27 on the U.S. dance chart in '81 but only bubbled under at #102 on Billboard Hot 100 in ’83.

Nevertheless, the song is iconic and has consistently appeared on his “best of” and “greatest hits” compilations. Pittsburgh's new-wave radio station played it in '83, and so did MTV. I probably heard it at our local under-21 dance club, too, where the title was usually far too appropriate for me. Well, a more accurate one might have been "Standing By Myself (And Not Dancing).” 

I bought the 45, though. I'd recently purchased a bass and loved to try to play along with the record in my "bass-ment." It was great music for exercising, too. Those activities were fine to do alone, but salvation doesn't work that way. Our feeble solo attempts are inadequate, insufficient, ineffective, and infinitesimal. 

The same goes for our efforts to overcome sin and temptation without divine intervention and continued assistance from above. As Jesus clearly stated, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). 

This parody is a good companion piece to "Sin Can Be Resistible" and "30 Days in a Row."
 
GIDEON STILL BECAME AN ALL-STAR

Many years ago, my brother-in-law suggested adding "Video Killed the Radio Star" to the list of novelty songs we played for our daughters on car trips. In 2024, three of those daughters suggested ApologetiX spoof it, and they put forth my second-oldest, Heather, as the prime candidate to sing the female vocals. 

What they didn't know was that I had actually asked our keyboardist Rich Mannion about doing it back in September 2022. Nobody had to convince me Heather's voice would be great for it, especially the "oh uh-oh" parts. And so it came to pass that we released our finished parody in September 2024. 

I'd been intending to replace the word "Video" with "Gideon" for a while but wasn't sure where to go ... "Gideon Killed the Reigning Old Guard"? Nah, there had to be something more cheerful. Besides, I didn't want people to think we were advocating violent revolution or referring to some specific senior citizen who was a guard in that Bible story. 

On August 8, it finally hit me: "Gideon Still Became an All-Star." That lined up well with one of the main themes of Gideon's rise in the Book of Judges: God sees and brings out the potential in a person who thinks they're a nobody and feels totally unqualified for the task. We see that other times in the Bible with people like Moses and Jeremiah. 

I was offered free tickets to the 1994 MLB All-Star game in Pittsburgh but couldn't go, because ApX had a concert that night in nearby Monroeville PA. 

One of the nifty features of our new website (introduced in May) is that you can now get multiple items of different types (physical and/or download-only) with the same transaction.

For example ...

If you want to get multiple single downloads, you can put them all in the same shopping cart, rather than having to do individual transactions. 

Or say you want to get the USB plus the digital songbook … or the complete library plus the digital songbook. You can put them in the same shopping cart together. You can even put them in along with singles downloads. 

Similarly, if you want to purchase CDs but also want to buy some downloads of albums that are not available on CD, you can put them all in the same shopping cart. Same thing goes for lapel pins and challenge coins. 

In each of these cases, if you order something that is a download, the download is sent to you instantly and automatically through our new website. The physical items will be mailed to you.

The only items that won’t work that way are shirts, hoodies, caps, drinkware, and stickers. Although you still purchase those from our website, they come from a different vendor, not directly from us. The vendor makes those on demand and ships them directly to you, although we are notified of the order and are able to monitor things. 

Shirts, hoodies, caps, drinkware, and stickers can be put in the same shopping cart together, but they cannot be put in the same shopping cart with singles, CDs, USBs, songbooks, the complete library, lapel pins, or challenge coins.

Our new ApologetiX USB thumb drives are now in stock!

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, “Gideon Still Became an All-Star / Can’t Do It Myself."

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 1700 tracks, including various versions (studio, live, rarity, album, single, EP, revised, remastered, etc.), plus side projects ... even our most-recent single and our latest CD.

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.

1584. Soundproof - ApologetiX
Released November 2010, this was the 18th ApologetiX CD and featured 18 spoofs of songs originally performed by Billy Currington, The Doobie Brothers, Five Man Electrical Band, The Grateful Dead, The Guess Who, Jethro Tull, Billy Joel, Kings of Leon, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, The Lovin' Spoonful, John Cougar Mellencamp, Jason Mraz, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Shinedown, T. Rex, and Neil Young. It was done in the style of the old MTV Unplugged CDs. Why would any self-respecting rock band title their CD Soundproof? Doesn’t “soundproof” seem to suggest that other people won’t be able to hear you? Well, yes — and no. ApologetiX is all about giving scripturally (and logically) sound proof for why we believe what we believe. As 1 Peter 3:15 says: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” Of course, no matter how gentle and respectful our answers are, or how scripturally and logically sound our proof is, there are many people who still won’t hear any of it. Why? In Jeremiah 6:10, God says: “To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.” Those people choose to put God — and Christians who try to share His Word — in a soundproof box. Since they’d prefer that we keep quiet, we recorded this CD with acoustic guitars and a grand piano (along with bass and drums) to make it a little quieter. But our sentiments toward them are summed up in the title and lyrics to one of the tracks on this CD, “Wish You Could Hear.” As the CD liner notes state, Soundproof is “based on a live recording." In other words, we recorded the tracks live (and clad in tie-dyed ApologetiX shirts made especially for the occasion) before an audience in Wexford, PA on July 9, 2010, and polished them up in the studio afterward. The songs appear on the CD in the same order in which they were performed at the concert. Tom Milnes and Tom Tincha played acoustic electric guitars. Bill Hubauer played grand piano. Keith  Haynie and Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner played bass and drums as usual. This album also featured saxophone (Dave Langett), fiddle (Bill Hubauer), ukulele (Tom Milnes), and kazoo (J. Jackson). 
 
1585. The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings - Styx
In July 2007, I read a book called The Grand Delusion: The Unauthorized True Story of Styx by Sterling Whitaker. I was already familiar with the group's music from their glory years, but I wanted to get some of their early stuff, especially the original hit version of "Lady," which wasn't on their Greatest Hits album, since it wasn't released on A&M Records like their later hits. Consequently, I had to look elsewhere. The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings was a two-disc set from 2005 that contained everything on Styx's first four LPs — all recorded and released before Tommy Shaw joined — which were on the Wooden Nickel label: Styx (1972), Styx II (1973), The Serpent Is Rising (1973) and Man of Miracles (1974). In addition to "Lady" (which did not chart in '73 but went to #6 when rereleased in '75), the band had two other Hot 100 singles during that period, "Best Thing" (#82 in '72) and "You Need Love" (#88 in '75), and they're quite good. In fact, all four albums had considerably more to offer musically than I expected. You can definitely hear strong leanings toward progressive rock, with some strange twists. For example, side one of the third LP ended with a comedic number called "Plexiglass Toilet," whereas side two ended with a straightforward rendition of "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah. I also was surprised by how many cuts were sung by guitarist James "J.Y." Young. I'd heard him sing occasional tunes like "Miss America," "Snowblind," and "Half-Penny, Two Penny" on later Styx records, but I had no idea what a powerful, clear voice he actually had. Styx released one more album with their other original guitarist John "J.C." Curulewski, Equinox (1975), featuring the hit single "Lorelei" (#27), before Shaw came on board for Crystal Ball (1976). Curulewski, who left to spend more time with his family, became a guitar teacher, but died of brain aneurysm in 1988 at age 37. 
 
1586. Greatest Hits – The Foo Fighters
One of the funniest quotations in Dave Grohl's autobiography — and there were many — pertained to this album: "After a long hard year and a half on the road, the Foo Fighters were releasing a greatest hits collection and were asked to write and record a new song to include in the track list to help promote it (otherwise known as 'the song on the greatest hits record that is neither great nor a hit')." The tune the Foos' frontman was apparently referring to, "Wheels," was actually moderately successful (#72 pop, #4 mainstream rock, #3 alternative), as was the disc from whence it came. Released November 3, 2009, Greatest Hits went to #11 and stayed on the Billboard 200 for 126 weeks and sold just over a million copies. Two other new recordings on it, "Word Forward" and an acoustic version of "Everlong," were not officially released to radio and consequently did not chart. Neither did the "Skin and Bones," which had originally appeared on their live acoustic album. As for the other 12 tracks on this compilation, five of them had hit the pop Top 40: "This is a Call" (#35 pop airplay, #6 mainstream, #2 alternative), "Big Me" (#13 pop, #18 mainstream, #3 alternative), "Best of You" (#18 pop, #1 mainstream, #1 alternative), "Learn to Fly" (#19 pop, #2 mainstream, #1 alternative), and "The Pretender" (#37 pop, #1 mainstream, #1 alternative for a record-setting 18 weeks). Of course, The Foo Fighters were always more successful on the mainstream and alternative charts. And that success continued long after Greatest Hits came out. By the end of 2020, according to the Billboard chart data accumulated by the industry's foremost expert, Joel Whitburn, they were the #1 alternative artist of all time and the #12 mainstream rock artist of all time. Greatest Hits didn't even have enough room for all of their hits through 2009, but it did manage to squeeze in "Everlong" (#42 pop airplay, #4 mainstream, #3 alternative), "All My Life" (#43 pop, #3 mainstream, #1 alternative for 10 weeks), "Monkey Wrench" (#58 pop airplay, #9 mainstream, #9 alternative), "My Hero" (#59 pop airplay, #8 mainstream, #6 alternative), "Times Like These" (#65 pop, #5 mainstream, #5 alternative), "Long Road to Ruin" (#2 mainstream, #1 alternative for seven weeks), and "Breakout" (#11 mainstream, #8 alternative). ApologetiX has spoofed five Foo Fighters favorites, but we've never attempted my personal big three: "Learn to Fly," "Times Like These," and "Long Road to Ruin." 
 
1587. Greatest Hits – The Guess Who
Guess Who's back on my list! I wrote about two previous compilations, The Best of The Guess Who (1971) and The Best of The Guess Who Vol. II (1973), much earlier on this list. Released in 1999, Greatest Hits included all of the U.S. Top 50 hits from those two LPs, plus the group's final three Top 40 hits, which didn't arrive until 1974: "Clap For The Wolfman” (#6 U.S.), "Dancing Fool” (#28 U.S.), and "Star Baby” (#39 U.S.). They're all winners in my book, as are the rest of the tracks: "American Woman” (#1 U.S., #1 Canada), "No Sugar Tonight (#1 U.S. flip side) / New Mother Nature,” "No Time” (#5 U.S., #1 Canada), "These Eyes” (#6 U.S.), “Laughing” (#10 U.S., #1 Canada), "Share The Land” (#10 U.S.), "Hand Me Down World” (#17 U.S.), "Rain Dance” (#19 U.S.), “Undun” (#22 U.S.), "Albert Flasher” (#29 U.S.), "Hang On To Your Life” (#43 U.S.), "Heartbroken Bopper” (#47 U.S.), "Sour Suite” (#50 U.S.), "Follow Your Daughter Home” (#61 U.S.), and "Guns, Guns, Guns” (#70 U.S.). The only Hot 100 singles missing from Greatest Hits are "Shakin' All Over" (#22 U.S., #1 Canada), "Broken" (the #55 flip side of "Albert Flasher) and "Runnin' Back to Saskatoon" (#96). The latter two were on The Best of The Guess Who Vol. II, but "Shakin' All Over" was not. It came out on Scepter Records in 1965, four years before any of the group's other U.S. hits, and featured Chad Allen on lead vocals rather than Burton Cummings, who sang on every one of their subsequent hits, which were on the RCA Victor label. In fact, the group was actually known as Chad Allen and The Expressions when "Shakin' All Over" (a cover version of a 1960 U.K. #1 hit by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates) was recorded. I like all three of those missing tunes a lot, but an even better collection with everything on it, Anthology, would come along in 2003. I purchased and read Wheatfield Empire: The Listeners Guide to The Guess Who by Robert Lawson in 2021. 
 
1588. ApologetiX Classics - ApologetiX
By late 2010, ApologetiX had released 18 albums, but our earliest efforts had some spotty moments, and the manufacturer of seven of our older titles was making a business transition, so it seemed like a good time to consolidate. After years of people asking if we had a CD that was just country or metal or oldies, etc., we took the vast majority of the songs from our first 15 and recategorized them by genre and/or era: Party, Heavy, Lite, Country, Oldies, '60s, '70s, '70s Volume 2, '80s, '90s, and 2000s. Those initial 11 ApologetiX Classics CDs were ideal for fans who wanted to share ApX with others who only liked a specific type of music. The tracks were remastered by our producer at the time, Bill Hubauer. You often hear about classic albums getting remastered then rereleased to great fanfare — what does remastering mean? Remastering is not remixing. The main purpose of remastering our previously released songs was to provide a more pleasant listening experience for the fan. Keep in mind that the songs on these CDs were originally released over a 15-year span, and our skills and technology progressively improved over the years. By remastering the tracks, we were able to make the songs sound more like they all belonged together. One of the things we did was balance volume levels, because the industry had pushed for louder levels over the years. If you’ve ever had a playlist on shuffle on your iPod, MP3 player, or computer (or if you made homemade cassettes of your favorite songs back in the day), you’ve probably had to adjust the volume multiple times. Not with these CDs. Another thing we did was fix levels when we thought a certain instrument was too loud or not loud enough in the mix. All 203 tracks in the initial ApologetiX Classics series were remastered, but some songs showed more dramatic results than others, and some ears will pick up more difference than others. We added a 12th volume, featuring 13 Christmas-themed parodies, in late 2013. 
 
1589. Good Vibrations - 30 Years of the Beach Boys - The Beach Boys
In the spring of 2006, I purchased and read The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and the Southern California Experience, an exhaustive 416-page book by Timothy White. That inspired me to revisit The Beach Boys — the first rock-and-roll act I ever loved — already having owned the compilations Endless Summer (1974), Spirit of America (1975), and Good Vibrations: Best of The Beach Boys (1976) when I was in high school and college. By 2006, there was a decent amount of music available digitally, so I cherry-picked from a multitude of their albums, most notably Good Vibrations: 30 Years of the Beach Boys, a five-CD box set originally released July 29, 1993. It spanned the band's career from the early days through the 1988 surprise #1 hit "Kokomo." In addition to that, as I attempted to assemble all 63 of their Hot 100 hits, I purchased selections from Surfer Girl / Shut Down, Vol. 2 (1963/64), Little Deuce Coupe / All Summer Long (1963/64), The Greatest Hits Vol. 1, Today! / Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (1965), Smiley Smile / Wild Honey (1967), Friends / 20/20 (1968/69), Sunflower / Surf's Up (1970/71), M.I.U. / Light Album (1978/79), Keepin' the Summer Alive / The Beach Boys (1980/85), Still Cruisin' (1989) The Beach Boys Greatest Hits Vol. 3 - Best of the Brother Years 1970-1986 (2000), Classics Selected by Brian Wilson (2002), and Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of the Beach Boys (2003). I don't need to rehash the group's biggest hits here — they're iconic — but my favorite lesser-known classics acquired in this adventure were "Darlin'" (#19), "I Can Hear Music" (#24), "Wild Honey" (#31), Sail On, Sailor" (#49), "Add Some Music to Your Day" (#64), "California Saga (On My Way to sunny Californ-i-a" (#84), "Cotton Fields" (#103), "Marcella" (#110), and the gorgeous non-single "Surf's Up." Others included "Good Timin'" (#40), "Friends" (#47), "Bluebirds Over the Mountain" (#61), "Surfin'' (#75), and "Long Promised Road" (#89). Note: The Beach Boys notched a 64th Hot 100 hit in 2020-22, when their 1963 Christmas recording "Little Saint Nick" entered the charts three years in a row, peaking at #29 in 2022. ApologetiX has spoofed eight Beach Boys hits.  
 
1590. Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler – Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler
In May 2011, I got an idea for a parody of "Money for Nothing," so I purchased this compilation, which originally came out in November 2005. We recorded and released that parody later in 2011, but I got so much more out of Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler. I recommend the two-disc edition, which has 22 songs and the original album version (8:24) of "Money for Nothing," as opposed to the one-disc edition, which has only 14 songs and the single-edit version (4:04) of "Money for Nothing." The Dire Straits stuff (most of which I was familiar with) drew me in, but the Mark Knopfler solo material (most of which I'd never heard before) kept me coming back. All four of the group's U.S. Top 40 hits were included: "Money for Nothing" (#1 U.S., #4 U.K.), "Sultans of Swing" (#4 U.S., #8 U.K.), "Walk of Life" (#7 U.S. pop, #2 U.K.), and "So Far Away" (#19 U.S., #20 U.K.). Other U.K. hits featured were "Private Investigations" (#2 U.K.), "Romeo and Juliet" (#8 U.K.) "Brothers in Arms" (#16 U.K.), "Calling Elvis" (#21 U.K., #1 U.S. mainstream rock), "Your Latest Trick" (#26 U.K.), "Skateaway" (#37 U.K.), "On Every Street" (#42 U.K.), "Love Over Gold" (#50 U.K.), and "Tunnel of Love" (#54 U.K.). The only non-charting Dire Straits selection on this collection is possibly the best, "Telegraph Road," although its length (14:20) probably scared away most radio programmers. However, as I stated earlier, Knopfler's solo material was the revelatory part of the record for me. I was already a Dire Straits fan but only knew one of his solo songs on Private Investigations — the instrumental "Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)" (#56 U.K.). I first heard it while in college and liked it a lot. Of the remaining seven solo numbers, my favorites are "Why Aye Man" (#81 U.K.), "What It Is," "Boom Like That" (#34 U.K.) — three tunes I've yet to tire of. I also enjoyed the two duets, "All the Roadrunning" (with Emmylou Harris) (#8 U.K.) and "Sailing to Philadelphia" (with James Taylor), and the other instrumental, "The Long Road." This album would eventually lead me to many more Knopfler albums full of wonderful music and lyrics, which I plan to discuss in detail later. In 2022, I read My Life in Dire Straits: The Inside Story of One of the Biggest Bands in Rock History by John Illsley, the band's bassist. 

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!