|
Influential Albums: 1346-1352
Fri., Jan. 19. 2024 5:56pm 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.
1346. Worldwide - Audio Adrenaline
Released on February 25, 2003, Worldwide was Audio Adrenaline's seventh non-compilation LP. It reached #116 on the Billboard 200 and contained some of my all-time favorite songs by the band — "Worldwide: One," "Worldwide: Two," "Light a Fire," "Dirty," and a stunning remix of "Ocean Floor" from the band's previous album. I bought Worldwide when it came out but will always associate it with something that happened exactly four months later. On Thursday, July 24, 2003, ApologetiX played at the Spirit West Coast festival in Monterey CA. The next morning, we flew from San Jose Airport to Fargo ND the closest major city to the Spirit Mid West festival in Detroit Lakes MN, where we were slated to play on Saturday, July 26. We had a layover in Denver. Unfortunately, our luggage (clothing, instruments, CDs, etc.) had a longer layover than we did; they never sent it along with us when we went to Fargo! Worse still, the next flight from Denver to Fargo was after we are supposed to play. The airline eventually made alternate arrangements, and we had everything in time for the show on Saturday. In the meantime, however, we had to get to Wal-Mart to buy clothes, toiletries, socks, etc. The trouble was, we had taken a cab to our hotel, and Wal-Mart wasn't in walking distance. But Outback Steakhouse was, and that's where the most interesting part of our story occurred. We originally were going to the Pizza Hut next door to our hotel but decided to walk a few minutes longer and go to Outback. Our waiter's name was Lynn, and we soon discovered that he not only had been to Spirit Midwest before (as had the accompanying waiter-in-training), he just happened to be the brother-in-law of Audio Adrenaline's lead guitarist and occasional lead singer, Tyler Burkum! I told Lynn that our loss of luggage couldn't possibly compare with Audio Adrenaline having their equipment stolen the previous year and then discovered on eBay, and he remembered that whole ordeal with a laugh. I also mentioned that I'd talked with former Audio Adrenaline opening act Riley Armstrong the previous Saturday at a concert and had learned how thieves had stolen tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment from Riley. Lynn then told me that Riley had stayed at his house before! It all made for some great conversation, but not only that, Outback took pity on us and gave us free soft drinks and desserts! Furthermore, Lynn actually let us borrow his car so we could go to Wal-Mart and shop! Is God cool or what? At another festival in 2004 or 2005, (I think it was either Sonshine in Willmar MN or LiFest in Oshkosh WI), ApX drummer Bill Rieger met Audio Adrenaline drummer Ben Cissell (I'd met Ben briefly in 2001 but Bill hadn't) and helped him with some drum repairs, so Ben asked Bill to be his drum tech for the evening. Sadly, Bill turned him down, because he figured we had to get on the road to our next gig. Bill didn't tell me till after the fact or I would have encouraged him to accept Ben's offer.
1347. Adoration: The Worship Album - Newsboys
Adoration: The Worship Album was the 10th Newsboys studio LP and their first full-fledged worship project. Released in April 2003, it went to #56 on the Billboard 200, selling half a million copies. Two tracks on it received massive airplay and have since become classics: "He Reigns" and "You Are My King (Amazing Love)." Although I was already an established Newsboys fan, my wife, Lisa, was the one who told me about "He Reigns." What an incredible song! Like many other classic Newsboys tunes, it was written by Peter Furler and Steve Taylor. As I've said before, Taylor is one of my favorite lyricists, and I love the things he and Furler wrote together. I think "He Reigns" is one of their finest pieces of work. "You Are My King (Amazing Love)" was one of only two songs on Adoration not written by either Taylor or Furler. The composer was Billy James Foote, although the chorus employs music and lyrics from Charles Wesley's hymn "And Can It Be," originally written in 1738. Newsboys followed up Adoration with another worship album, Devotion, in November 2004.
1348. Finding Nemo - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The Disney Pixar film Finding Nemo opened nationally in theaters on May 30, 2003. That same day, ApologetiX was playing the Spirit of Vegas festival in Boulder City NV. We had spent the week leading up to the concert in Vegas with our wives and kids. Everybody went to Hoover Dam as a group, but Keith Haynie's family and mine spent pretty much all of our time together doing kid-friendly things, which included a lot of swimming at the hotel pool and eating brunches at IHOP. Keith and Krista already had three kids, but Lisa and I only had six-year-old Janna, one-year-old Heather, and a baby-to-named-later in Lisa's tummy. Her name was Kelly but she wouldn't arrive until October 1. When Janna was in first grade at Eden Christian Academy the following fall, a teacher asked the students to name their favorite vacation spot. Janna enthusiastically said, "Las Vegas!" She was thinking of swimming pools and IHOPs, but I can only imagine what went through the teacher's mind. Anyway, Lisa and I went to see Finding Nemo very soon after we got home from Vegas (I think Janna was spending time with my ex-wife that day) and loved it. It went on to become the highest-grossing G-rated movie ever (until Toy Story 3 came along in 2010). Of course, we bought the DVD when it came out and showed it to Janna (and our other kids when they were old enough), although we fast-forwarded past the early scene where Nemo's mom gets devoured by a barracuda. Finding Nemo became the biggest-selling DVD (almost 39 million copies) of all time in the United States. The runner-up, Cars, didn't even come close (just over 23 million copies). Anyway, all that to say this: I was instantly taken with the score of Finding Nemo by Thomas Newman, the cousin of singer/songwriter Randy Newman, particularly a song called "First Day," which remains one of my all-time favorite instrumentals to this day, even though I have played it many a time in the decades since. Released on May 20, 2003, the Finding Nemo soundtrack has 40 tracks, adding up to almost a full hour of music. The first 39 are by Newman and the 40th is by British superstar singer Robbie Williams — a cover of "Beyond the Sea," a French song ("La Mer") first popularized in America by Bobby Darin, whose version hit #6 in 1960. It's a great tune, whether performed by Darin or Williams. Of the Newman tracks, I also recommend "The Little Clownfish from the Reef," "Haiku," "Finding Nemo," and "Fronds Like These."
1349. Kim Possible Soundtrack - Various Artists
The Disney Channel animated television series Kim Possible debuted on June 7, 2002, and ran for four seasons until September 7, 2007. My oldest daughter, Janna, was a big fan of the teenage crimefighter/action-heroine (and Janna's baby sister Heather would eventually also enjoy the show on reruns and on DVD), so we bought the soundtrack after it came out on July 1, 2003. The big hits from that in our minivan were "Call Me, Beep Me! (The Kim Possible Song)" by Christina Milian and "The Naked Mole Rap" by Kim's sidekick Ron Stoppable (Will Friedle) and his pet naked mole rat, Rufus (Nancy Cartwright). The other songs I remember the most are "Summertime Guys" by Nikki Cleary, "This Year" by A*Teens, and "Come On, Come On" by Smash Mouth. The Kim Possible soundtrack only went to #125 on the Billboard 200, but it was much more successful in the local market (i.e. the Jackson household). In fact, I still erupt with portions of "Call Me, Beep Me!" from time to time ... and not just with family members (or anybody else) around.
1350. Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story, 1965-75 - Three Dog Night
I've written about four older Three Dog Night compilations in previous entries, but this is the best one by far. Released in 1993, Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story, 1965-75 had 43 tracks, including all 21 of the group's Top 40 singles, even their elusive final one, "'Til the World Ends" (#32 pop), which wasn't on the others. I bought my copy of this two-CD set in 2003 in order to get the single version of "Joy to the World," because ApologetiX was planning to spoof that tune for our next CD. I had owned a used copy of the 45 years earlier, and I knew it had a better drum mix than the album version and a kickin' guitar solo. Other 3DN compilations I'd owned all had the album version, which had a relatively tame keyboard solo instead. Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story also differed from previous compilations by using the cooler single versions of "An Old Fashioned Love Song," "Liar," and "The Show Must Go On," but the superior album versions of "Family of Man" and "Sure as I'm Sittin' Here." Those each had neat musical parts that weren't on the other versions. But there were all kinds of jewels among the 22 non-hits, too, like pre-Dog Night releases by Danny Hutton ("Roses and Rainbows" and "Funny How Love Can Be") and Cory Wells ("Sinner Man" with his previous group, The Enemys), plus a song all three of the group's lead vocalists — Hutton, Wells, and Chuck Negron — did for The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson under the name Redwood, "Time to Get Alone." Furthermore, Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story featured an early previously unreleased Three Dog Night demo called "If You Knew," which was quite good. Of the remaining selections, my favorites were "Night in the City," "Good Feeling," "In Bed," "Midnight Runaway," "Our 'B' Side," and "I Can Hear You Calling." For a complete track listing, go to https://www.discogs.com/master/1024914-Three-Dog-Night-Celebrate-The-Three-Dog-Night-Story-1965-1975. I've also read and recommend the autobiographies of two 3DN members, singer Chuck Negron (Three Dog Nightmare, published in 1999) and keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon (One is the Loneliest Number, published in 1991). Trouble is, both books are now out of print, and they cost a fortune to buy used.
1351. Adam Up - ApologetiX
The ninth ApologetiX LP, Adam Up, came out on December 2003. It featured parodies of 10 songs from the previous couple years (Good Charlotte, Toby Keith, Eminem, Jimmy Eat World, Five for Fighting, Sum 41, The Calling, Red Hot Chili Peppers, System of a Down, Foo Fighters), and a dozen from the '50s (The Everly Brothers), '60s (Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs), '70's (Grand Funk, Three Dog Night, K.C. & The Sunshine Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Frankie Valli), '80s (The Clash, The B-52s, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne), and '90s (The Proclaimers). Much to our delight and amazement, Adam Up made it to #1 on the National Christian Modern/College Rock Album Chart published by ChristianBEATS (May/June 2004). One of the tracks, "Look Yourself," became a #1 Christian Rap/Hip Hop Single on the ChristianBEATS chart (January 2004) and also made it to #1 on Christian-hiphop.net. Moreover, it made the Top 10 on the R & R National Christian Rhythmic Charts. Another cut, "Lifestyles of the Rich & Nameless," made the Top 30 on the R & R National Christian Rock Charts (April 2004) and reached #2 on the ChristianBEATS National Christian Modern/College Singles chart (May 2004), eventually winning the 2004 American Christian Music Award for "Alternative Song of the Year." A third song, "Downer of a Sister" made the Top 40 on the R & R National Christian Rock Charts (October 2004). In addition to those three hits, Adam Up contained some of my favorite ApologetiX recordings up to that point, including "We're in a Parody Band," "Meshach," "I'm Gonna Feed (500 Mouths)," "Get Found Tonight," "Should I Pray or Should I Go," "Sweet Oholibamah," "It's Not Eden," "Wherever You Will Sow," and "Called My Wife." However, after all was said and done, nothing for me in 2003 could compare to arrival of my daughter Kelly in October. That's three kids and counting — all daughters — if you add 'em up.
1352. Let Go - Avril Lavigne
Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne was almost three months shy of 18 when her debut LP, Let Go, came out. Released on July 4, 2002, it went on to become the bestselling album of the 21st century by a Canadian artist, with estimated worldwide sales of 16 million. That success was primarily driven by three signature songs: "Complicated" (#2 pop, #1 Adult Top 40 for 16 weeks), "Sk8er Boi" (#10 pop, #23 A40), and "I'm With You" (#4 pop, #1 A40 for 10 weeks). All three of those singles hit #1 on the Radio & Records pop chart, too. A fourth cut from Let Go, "Losing Grip," also charted but wasn't nearly as successful (#64 pop, #33 A40). Other interesting tracks included "Mobile" (released as a single in New Zealand, where it peaked at #26), "Tomorrow," "Anything but Ordinary," and "Things I'll Never Say." Dubbed the "Pop-Punk Queen" by the music press, Lavigne co-wrote all 13 songs on Let Go and had two more big singles in coming years, "My Happy Ending" (#9 pop, #3 A40) in 2004 and "Girlfriend" in 2007, which hit #1 in both the United States and Canada. She also was married to the front men of two successful Canadian rock bands — Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 (2006-10) and Chad Kroeger of Nickelback (2013-15). I first became aware of Avril Lavigne from rock magazines I'd seen. My oldest daughter, Janna, first heard Lavigne's music at a party for Keith Haynie's daughters, Sarah and Abby (who have birthdays within a few days of each other), in mid-January 2004. Janna, who was eight at the time, was probably the youngest kid invited. The feature attraction was a video game called Karaoke Revolution. At that time, the only music we really played for Janna in the car or anyplace else was compilations designed specifically for kids, contemporary Christian music, and a few soundtracks (Jimmy Neutron, Kim Possible, and Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie), so she knew none of the songs the other kids were singing for the game, which made it very difficult to participate. However, it was a slumber party, and by the next day, she knew one song in particular from the game, "Complicated." Soon after, I put "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi" on a CD of songs by various artists for her, and that was the pretty much her introduction to the pop music that her peers were already listening to. ApologetiX finally released a parody of "Complicated" with Janna singing lead vocals on January 22, 2017 — 13 years to the week of when she first heard that tune.
|
