What famous secular group did Bill Hubauer play with?

Although he doesn't like to talk much about it, ApologetiX keyboardist "Cool" Bill Hubauer once toured with one of Billboard Magazine's Top 500 artists of the rock era.

From 1985-86, Bill played keyboards for a Western Pennsylvania-based vocal group called the Vogues, best known for their two #4 hits in 1965, "Five O'Clock World" (also used as the theme for "The Drew Carey Show" and on the soundtrack for the movie "Good Morning Vietnam"), and "You're the One," and their two #7 hits in 1968, "Turn Around Look at Me" and "My Special Angel." The group had three other Top 40 hits,"This Magic Town," "Till," and "No Not Much."

Even more impressive is the Vogues' success on Billboard's adult contemporary charts, where they are ranked #121 all time, with a #1 hit and 17 Top 40 hits. It's interesting to note that 12 of those were remakes of older hits by other artists, although three of their four biggest pop hits were original. We believe this makes Bill Hubauer the keyboardist who is affiliated with the most combined adult contemporary and Christian alternative hits that were actually remakes of former hits :)

Does this mean we can expect an ApologetiX parody of a Vogues song in the near future? Probably not if Bill has anything to say about it. His musical tastes steer more toward a band he was in from 1991-94, Leftoverture, a tribute band that covered the songs of the progressive 70's rock band Kansas -- songs like "Carry On Wayward Son," "Dust in the Wind," "Point of Know Return" and "Play The Game Tonight."

However, Bill does say this about his Vogues period: "This was a good time for me. This was the first successful 'musician for hire' band that I was in. I also met my wife during this period, so I have fond memories of that." Better to have Vogue memories than vague memories, we suppose.

Bill also played with two spin-off groups from the Vogues -- Racon and Wagner in 1986 and Shades of Time in 1988. He did not however, have anything to do with En Vogue, the female R&B vocal group that scored six top 10 hits from 1990-96, including the #2 hits, "Hold On," "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It), and "Don't Let Go (Love)." Nor did he play on Madonna's #1 hit from 1990, "Vogue." Furthermore, he has never appeared in Vogue magazine.