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Influential Albums: 1381-1387
Thu., Feb. 22. 2024 4:13pm 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.
1381. Righteous Pop Music (R.P.M.), Volumes 1-5 - Mark Bradford
Denver-based Christian parodist Mark Bradford produced 20 volumes for the Righteous Pop Music (R.P.M.) series — I owned the first five (released from 1996-2001) — plus eight or nine volumes in the Listen 2 Him series. I think I may have first learned about him from ApologetiX fans who were involved in puppet ministries ... and there were a lot of them! I wrote the following in our newsletter on February 7, 2002: "Over the past few years, we have been contacted countless times by puppet ministries who use ApologetiX parodies as part of their shows for children and adults. It is amazing just how many puppet ministries there are in the world and how many of them have honored us by using our CDs to reach others for Christ! Our CDs are even stocked by One Way Street in Colorado, which supplies materials to puppet ministries all over the world. We think that's very cool, and we're humbled by it. That having been said, we can't help but giggle at the similarity of our career path to that of Britain's legendary heavy metal band Spinal Tap. Not only have we both gone through a lot of drummers over the years (of course, ours are all alive and still friends with us), but Tap played one of their last shows at a theme park where the marquee read "Puppet Show and Spinal Tap' ... In fact, when we were kicking around names for the last CD, Bill and I joked about spoofing Metallica's Master of Puppets and calling it Pastor of Puppets or Pastor of Muppets." Mark Bradford, however, was the master of puppet parodies. I think my favorite of the ones on the R.P.M. CDs I owned was "Sanctuarian Rhapsody." You can find videos online of a number of different puppet ministries performing it, including this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_rYRJXzArI. I corresponded with Mark a couple of times, most recently in 2010. Here's an excerpt from one of our emails: "I'm a longtime admirer of you guys' work as well. What I do is different from what you guys do, mainly because I do the RPMs for a client, so I don't have complete control over song choices, etc. RPMs are meant for puppet ministry rather than for me to perform, though I know puppet teams use ApologetiX stuff a lot too. I hear your parody of 'Devil Went Down To Georgia' all the time at puppet ministry festivals. I hope we can work together sometime. Let me know the next time you guys are going to be in Colorado." Unfortunately, Mark passed away in 2018 after battling cancer for several years, so we never got to meet in person, but I hope this entry will bring some additional attention to the work he did. ApologetiX fans know that we did a parody called "Bethlehemian Rhapsody" in 1994 and again in 2001. Ours was about David (who was born in Bethlehem) and Goliath. I don't think Mark knew about ours, and he did a parody of his own with the same title about the birth of Jesus (who was also born in Bethlehem). Because of this many people mistakenly think the Christmas version is ours, too, but it was Mark's.
1382. Five Other Cledus T. Judd Albums - Cledus T. Judd
I wrote about country parodist Cledus T. Judd's debut LP, No Relation, a while back, but I owned at least five other albums by him. The ones I remember are: Did I Shave My Back for This? (March 1998), Cledus Country (March 1999), Juddmental (October 1999), Cledus Envy (April 2002), and A Six Pack of Judd (April 2003). Highlights included "Did I Shave My Back for This?" ("Did I Shave My Legs for This?" by Deana Carter), "Christ-mas" ("This Kiss" by Faith Hill), "Livin' Like John Travolta" ("Livin' La Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin), "How Do You Milk a Cow?" ("How Do You Like Me Now?" by Toby Keith), "Plowboy" ("Choirboy" by Kid Rock), "It's a Great Day to Be a Guy" ("It's a Great Day to Be Alive" by Travis Tritt), "1/2" ("Yes!" by Chad Rock), "Breath" ("Breathe" by Faith Hill), "Man of Constant Borrow" ("Man of Constant Sorrow" by The Soggy Bottom Boys), Two Seventy Somethin'" ("19 Somethin'" by Mark Willis), "New Car" ("Big Star" by Kenny Chesney), "Where's Your Mommy?" ("Who's Your Daddy?" by Toby Keith), and "Riding With Inmate Jerome" ("Riding With Private Malone" by David Ball). Like "Weird Al," Cledus (a.k.a. James Barry Poole) usually just sang in his own voice (or a caricature of it) when doing parodies, but he did a nice job imitating Toby Keith on "How Do You Milk a Cow?"
1383. Veggie Rocks - Various Artists
Released on March 9, 2004, Veggie Rocks
featured rocked-up versions of standards from the Veggie Tales series as performed by notable Christian bands and solo artists. Two of the tunes had previously appeared on the Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie soundtrack in 2002 — "In the Belly of the Whale" by Newsboys and "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" by Relient K. Another track, "The Hairbrush Song (Live)" by Audio Adrenaline, first came out in 1997. The other selections included "Veggie Tales Theme Song" by Rebecca St. James, "I Love My Lips" by Stevenson (Steven Curtis Chapman and his sons), "The Promised Land" by Sanctus Real, "The Water Buffalo Song" by Superchick, "I'm So Blue" by Paul Colman, "I Can Be Your Friend" by The O.C. Supertones, "His Cheeseburger" by Tait, and "Stand" by Skillet. Of those eight, my favorite interpretations were "I Love My Lips," "I'm So Blue," and "The Promised Land," but every track had something interesting to offer. Veggie Tales never sounded as creepy as Rebecca St. James' "Veggienescence" version of the theme song or as scary as Skillet's "Five Nights at Veggies" version of "Stand."
1384. Jive Bunny: The Album - Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers
British novelty group Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers scored eight U.K. Top 40 hits between 1989-91, five of which reached the Top 10 and three of which went the whole way to #1. The first two chart toppers also hit the U.S. Hot 100: "Swing the Mood" (#11 U.S. pop) and "That's What I Like" (#69 U.S. pop). Both of them appeared on the group's debut LP, which I picked up in October 2002. Jive Bunny: The Album went to #2 on the U.K. album chart and even reached a respectable #26 on the Billboard 200. All eight of the tracks were medleys of tunes from '40s, '50s, '60s, and/or '70s. The songs featured in "Swing the Mood" included "In the Mood" (Glenn Miller), "Pennsylvania 6-5000" (Glenn Miller), "Little Brown Jug" (Glenn Miller), "Let's Twist Again" (Chubby Checker), "Rock Around the Clock" (Bill Haley and His Comets), "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie" (Bill Haley and His Comets), "Tutti Frutti" (Little Richard), "Wake Up Little Susie" (The Everly Brothers), "C'mon Everybody" (Eddie Cochran), "Hound Dog" (Elvis Presley), "Shake, Rattle and Roll" (Bill Haley and His Comets), "All Shook Up" (Elvis Presley), "Jailhouse Rock" (Elvis Presley), and "At the Hop" (Danny and the Juniors). I love medleys and thought it was clever how "Swing the Mood" combined classics from both the Big Band era and the early days of rock and roll — two genres/generations that previously seemed almost opposed to each other. "That's What I Like" comprised snippets of "Hawaii 5-0" (The Ventures), "Let's Twist Again" (Chubby Checker), "Let's Dance" (Chris Montez), "Wipe Out" (The Surfaris), "Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis), "Johnny B. Goode" (Chuck Berry), "Good Golly, Miss Molly" (Little Richard), "The Twist" (Chubby Checker), "Summertime Blues" (Eddie Cochran), "Razzle-Dazzle" (Bill Haley and His Comets), "Runaround Sue" (Dion), and "Chantilly Lace" (The Big Bopper). The other medley I was most interested in on Jive Bunny: The Album was "Do You Wanna Rock," which featured seven U.K. Top 10 hits from the early '70s glam scene: "Do You Wanna Dance" (Barry Blue), "Do You Wanna Touch Me" (Gary Glitter), "Get It On/Bang a Gong" (T. Rex), "Teenage Rampage" (The Sweet), "Hot Love" (T. Rex), "Devil Gate Drive" (Suzi Quatro), and "I'm the Leader of the Gang" (Gary Glitter).
1385. The Very Best of Stars on 45 - Stars on 45
Dutch medley masters Stars on 45 are best remembered for a 1981 #1 smash that technically had the longest title of any single ever to top the Hot 100. Previous title holder B.J. Thomas' 1975 hit "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" was no match for "Medley: Intro Venus/Sugar Sugar/No Reply/I'll Be Back/Drive My Car/Do You Want to Know a Secret/We Can Work It Out/I Should Have Known Better/Nowhere Man/You've Going to Lose That Girl/Stars on 45." That song also went to #1 in Canada and #2 in The Beatles' homeland. A second Beatles barrage, "Medley II," hit #19 in Canada but stalled at #69 in the States and was not a hit in England. However, Stars on 45 did a lot more than Beatles imitations; the group had five other Top 10 hits in their native Netherlands, and those tunes did decently in other countries, too. "More Stars" (#3 NL, #2 U.K., #36 Canada, #55 U.S.) was all about ABBA. "Volume III" (#4 NL, #17 U.K.) featured an extremely eclectic mix of '70s hits ... with "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" thrown in for good measure. "Stars on Stevie" (#7 NL, #14 U.K., #45 Canada, #28 U.S.) focused on Stevie Wonder. "The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World" (#9 NL) was a Rolling Stones revue. "Proudly Presents The Star Sisters" (#1 NL, #80 U.K., #107 U.S.) centered around the Andrews Sisters. Released in 2002 on the Red Bullet label, The Very Best of Stars on 45 has all of those, plus a Supremes medley, a third Beatles medley, an old-time Hollywood medley, and, believe it or not, "A Tribute to Marilyn Monroe." I ordered a copy in October 2002 along with another album called Stars on CD: The Complete Dance Medley CD. Lest you think those were frivolous purchases, ApologetiX eventually released our own medley (of '80s parodies) in 2011. I'd been wanting to do something like that for years, and Stars on 45 and Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers helped fuel the fire.
1386. Freaks Come Out at Night - Various Artists
Released in 1998, Freaks Come Out at Night is one of the strangest collections I ever owned, and not just because of its Halloweenish theme. It featured a dozen pop, rock, and R&B tracks (three of which were instrumentals) from 1958-88, including four #1 hits — one each from the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s: "The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley ('58), "Ally Oop" by The Hollywood Argyles ('60), and "Frankenstein" by Edgar Winter Group ('73), and "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. ('84). Meanwhile, four other songs — one from the '60s, two from the '70s, and one from the '80s — never hit the Hot 100: "The Addams Family Main Theme" by Vic Mizzy With His Orchestra and Chorus, "Theme from Jaws" by Henry Mancini, "Godzilla" by Blue Öyster Cult, and "Freaks Come Out at Night" by Whodini (#104 pop, but I knew it from my college days). The remaining four selections were "Haunted House" by Jumpin' Gene Simmons (#11 in '64), "King Kong" by The Jimmy Castor Bunch (#69 in '75), "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon (#21 pop in '78), and "A Nightmare on My Street" by The Fresh Prince & D.J. Jazzy Jeff (#15 in '88). I think I bought Freaks Come Out at Night in '98 or '99, not for its fear factor but for its parody potential. It proved to be wise long-term investment; ApologetiX went on to spoof "Werewolves of London" and "Godzilla" in 2016 and "Ghostbusters" in 2021.
1387. The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country - George Jones
Released on November 1, 1994, The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country, featured 44 tracks from 1955-89. Jones had recorded for five different record labels by '89 (and more since then), so putting together such a career-spanning (up to that point) collection was no mean feat. By the time he died in April 2013, the man known as "Possum" had a chart career that ranked him the #2 country artist of all time, behind only Eddie Arnold. That included 168 charting country singles (22 more than Arnold), 143 Top 40 country hits (17 more than Arnold), and 78 Top 10 hits (second only to Arnold and George Strait, as of the end of 2012). My favorites were "White Lightning" (#1 country for five weeks), "I'm a People" (#6 country), "The Race Is On" (#3 country), "He Stopped Loving Her Today" (#1 country for one week), "She Thinks I Still Care" (#1 country for six weeks), and "We're Gonna Hold On" with Tammy Wynette (#1 country for two weeks). For all of his chart success, Jones only had 13 #1 country hits, which didn't even put him in the Top 25 at the time of his death, but the ones he had were memorable. In addition to the four I've already mentioned, they included "Tender Years," "Walk Through This World With Me," "The Grand Tour," "The Door," "Golden Ring" (with Tammy Wynette), "Near You" (with Tammy Wynette), "Still Doin' Time," "Yesterday's Wine" (with Merle Haggard), and "I Always Get Lucky With You." All of the songs I mentioned in this entry can be found on The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country. The closest he ever got to the pop Top 40 was the aforementioned "White Lightning" which only made it to #73. That tune was written by J.P. Richardson, a.k.a. The Big Bopper, best known for his 1958 hit "Chantilly Lace" (#6 pop) and for perishing in the same flight that took the lives of Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Note: This album should not be confused with the similarly titled 40-track 2006 LP The Essential George Jones, which does not include the duets with Wynette and Haggard or the essential (to me) "I'm a People."
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