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Influential Albums: 1339-1346
Fri., Jan. 12. 2024 5:58pm EST
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.
1339. The Young and the Hopeless - Good Charlotte
I first read about pop-punk band Good Charlotte in a magazine, but I can't remember if it was People, Entertainment Weekly, or Rolling Stone. Between Lisa and me, I think we were reading all of those publications at the time. Wow, times have changed. Led by identical twin brothers Joel (lead vocals) and Benji Madden (guitar and vocals), Good Charlotte hailed from Waldorf MD, a city ApologetiX had played before (in 1998) and would play again later (in 2006 and 2008). Released in October 1, 2002, The Young and the Hopeless was their second studio LP. It reached #7 on the Billboard 200, selling three and a half million units in the United States and five million worldwide. Three tracks got the most attention: "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" (#20 pop, #11 alternative), "The Anthem" (#43 pop, #10 alternative), and "The Young and the Hopeless" #28 alternative). I also really dug the powerful instrumental opening track, "A New Beginning." Another musical gem is "Say Anything." The songs "Girls & Boys" and "Riot Girl" are pretty amusing and entertaining, too. I could have done without the creepy "My Bloody Valentine," though. ApologetiX spoofed "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" in 2003. Speaking of famous, both brothers have celebrity spouses; Joel married Nicole Richie in 2010 and Benji married Cameron Diaz in 2015.
1340. Bleed American - Jimmy Eat World
Arizona-based, emo-pop punk band Jimmy Eat World released their fourth studio LP, Bleed American, on July 24 2001. After the 9-11 attacks against Americ occurred a month and a half later, the album was renamed Jimmy Eat World, and that's the way it stayed until 2008, when it was re-released under its original title. Four tracks charted: "The Middle" (#5 pop, #2 adult Top 40 for 10 weeks, #39 mainstream rock, #1 alternative for four weeks), "Bleed American" (#18 alternative), "Sweetness" (#75 pop, #40 A40, #2 alternative for three weeks), and "A Praise Chorus" (#16 alternative). Jimmy Eat World never had another Top 40 pop hit, but they did have 10 more Top 40 alternative hits, the biggest being "Pain' (#1 alternative, #93 pop), "My Best Theory" (#2 alternative, #114 pop), "Big Casino" (#3 alternative, #122 pop) and "Work" (#6 alternative, #110 pop). The band took its unique name from the caption of a crayon drawing made Ed Linton, one of the younger brothers of rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Tom Linton. The "Jimmy" being referred to was Linton's other younger brother, Jim, who was depicted shoving the Earth into his mouth. ApologetiX spoofed "The Middle" in 2003.
1341. Unleashed - Toby Keith
Toby Keith's seventh LP, Unleashed, was his first to top the Billboard 200, although he would have three others over the course of the decade, along with three more that peaked at #2 and two that stopped at #3. Released on August 6, 2002, the album demonstrated and fortified the Oklahoma country singer/songwriter/guitarist's crossover appeal, yielding three singles that hit #1 on the country chart while also reaching the top 25 on the pop chart: "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" (#25 pop, #1 country), "Who's Your Daddy?" (#22 pop, #1 country), and "Beer for My Horses" (featuring Willie Nelson) (#22 pop, #1 country for six weeks). One other cut was released as a single, "Rock You Baby," although it wasn't quite as successful (#66 pop, #13 country). Unleashed sold over four million copies in the United States. Toby first hit it big in 1993 with the song "Should've Been a Cowboy" (#1 country, 93 pop). He would go on to have 20 #1 country hits and over 40 top 10 country hits. I first became aware of him on my honeymoon in 2000, thanks to the song "How Do You Like Me Now?" (#31 pop, #1 country for five weeks). My wife, Lisa, enjoyed his songs a lot, especially "Down in Mexico" and "Who's Your Daddy?," plus "I Wanna Talk About Me" (#28 pop, #1 country for five weeks) from his 2001 LP, Pull My Chain. At one point, I was trying to decide whether to spoof "I Wanna Talk About Me" or "Who's Your Daddy?" We eventually settled on the latter and released that parody in 2003.
1342. A Place in the Sun - Tim McGraw
This is the second album called A Place in the Sun on my list. The first was the third LP by yacht-rock group Pablo Cruise and came out in February 1977. This one is the fifth LP by country singer-songwriter Tim McGraw and came out in May 1999. I bought it primarily for the song "Something Like That" (#28 pop, #1 country), although it contained three other #1 country singles that also reached the pop Top 30 — "Please Remember Me" (#10 pop), "My Best Friend" (#29 pop), and "My Next Thirty Years" (#27 pop). Another cut broke the trend (#58 pop, #7 country). Ironically, it was titled "Some Things Never Change." Other interesting tunes included "The Trouble With Never," "She'll Have You Back," and "Somebody Must Be Prayin' for Me." A Place in the Sun made it all the way to #1 on the Billboard 200 and sold four million copies. It was McGraw's second chart topper. As of 2023, he had four #1 albums, eight #2 albums, and 25 #1 country singles. Incidentally, there was also an album by the power-pop band Lit called A Place in the Sun released two months before McGraw's. It only went to #31 but sold a million copies. McGraw is the husband of fellow country superstar Faith Hill and the son of former Major League Baseball relief pitcher Tug McGraw, but most of the people who've read this far probably already knew that. But here's something you didn't know: I started writing a parody of "Something Like That" in the early 2000s. The chorus turned out nicely ... I liked it, I loved it, but I never wrote more of it.
1343. The Eminem Show - Eminem
This is Eminem's biggest-selling album, with claimed worldwide sales of 27 million — even more than its enormously popular predecessor, The Marshall Mathers LP. Released in May 26, 2002, The Eminem Show went #1 in 19 countries, including the United States, where it topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks. I bought a copy (the censored version, and let's just say the censors had their hands full), because Karl was very impressed by the wordplay in the first single, "Without Me" (#2 for five weeks), so we considered spoofing it. That parody never got beyond the initial idea stage, though. Three other Top 20 singles followed: "Cleaning Out My Closet" (#4), "Superman" (featuring Dina Rae) (#15), and "Sing for the Moment" (#14), which significantly sampled Aerosmith's "Dream On." A fifth single, "Hailie's Song," bubbled under the Hot 100 at #113. A sixth cut, "Business," became a #6 U.K. hit but was not released as a single in the States. Remarkably, another non-single from The Eminem Show, "'Till I Collapse" (featuring Nate Dogg), went on to become the most streamed song of all time on Spotify as of 2022. Major league baseball pitcher Justin Verlander, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, has used it as his walk-up music.
1344. 8 Mile: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture - Various Artists
Enimem was still putting out successful singles from his previous LP, The Eminem Show, when this one hit the streets ... and he'd continue to do so for five months afterward. Released on October 29, 2002, 8 Mile: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture featured the rapper's first #1 hit and his biggest to date, "Lose Yourself" (#1 for 13 weeks). Eminem appeared on four of the 16 tracks, including a second single, "8 Mile" (#102). The album itself topped the Billboard 200 for four weeks with sales of six million in the United States and 11 million worldwide. It also contained the first Hot 100 hit by soon-to-be-superstar 50 Cent, "Wanksta" (#13). Despite that song title's similarity to a notorious British slang word, 50 Cent claimed it had no correlation and actually meant "fake ganster." ApologetiX spoofed "Look Yourself" in 2003. The 8 Mile movie — starring Eminem, Mekhi Phifer, Brittany Murphy, and Kim Bassinger — opened at #1 at the box office for the weekend of November 10, 2002.
1345. Poodle Hat - "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic's 11th studio LP, Poodle Hat, was his first since Running With Scissors in 1999. Although it was available in stores on May 20, 2003, I received my copy in the mail as a delightful surprise gift from Al's drummer, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, who had played drums for us on seven tracks on ApologetiX's '99 CD, Biblical Graffiti. The initial single from Poodle Hat, "Couch Potato," was a spoof of Eminem's "Look Yourself." By that time, I had already written the lyrics for our own parody of that song (which would be released later in 2003). I was alarmed to discover that Al had rhymed at least one of the phrases in that song (although not in the chorus) with the same thing I had, so I dashed off a note to Jon to let him know we'd written our lyrics before Al's came out. I didn't think there'd be a problem, but I don't ever want to be accused of copying somebody else's parody ideas. "Couch Potato" didn't chart, but a second single, "eBay" (Al's take on the Backstreet Boys hit "I Want It That Way"), bubbled under at #115. Other parodies included "Trash Day" ("Hot in Herre" by Nelly), and my two favorites, "A Complicated Song" ("Complicated" by Avril Lavigne) and "Ode to a Superhero" ("Piano Man" by Billy Joel). As often occurs, the songs I liked best of all on this project were Al originals, "Bob" (a song consisting entirely of palindromes in the style of Bob Dylan) and "Genius in France" (a hilarious, epic genre-parody of Frank Zappa that clocked in at just under nine minutes long). Of course, it wouldn't be an Al-bum without the prerequisite polka medley, which, in this case, was "Angry White Boy Polka." Of the 13 songs covered in the medley, ApologetiX had already spoofed two of them and was about to spoof another: "Last Resort" (Papa Roach), "The Real Slim Shady" (Eminem), and "Chop Suey!" (System of a Down). Poodle Hat hit #17 on the Billboard 200 — Al's third album to peak at that position (the other two were "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D and Off the Deep End) — and won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. But his highest-charting LPs and single were still ahead of him.
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