|
Influential Albums: 1367-1373
Sat., Feb. 10. 2024 2:32pm 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.
1367. 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection - The Best of Tanya Tucker - Tanya Tucker
Well, I told you before that there are multiple LPs called The Best of Tanya Tucker. Released on October 31, 2000, this one covers her career directly after Columbia Records, when she moved to MCA, and it's part of that label's 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection series. This compilation includes her only Top 40 single, "Lizzie and the Rainman" (#37 pop, #7 adult contemporary), which also became her first of three #1 country singles as an MCA artist. The other two were "San Antonio Stroll" and "Here's Some Love," a tune that crossed over to #25 on the adult contemporary chart. You can find them all on this album, as well as the rest of Tucker's Top 10 country hits while she was working for MCA: "You've Got Me to Hold On To" (#3), "Don't Believe My Heart Can Stand Another You" (#4), "Can I See You Tonight" (#4), "Texas (When I Die)" (#5), "It's a Cowboy-Lovin' Night" (#7), and "Pecos Promenade" (#10). Her next label stops were Arista, Capitol, and Liberty, with others afterward. While at Capitol, she would score four more #1 country hits and six more #2s. After she moved to Liberty, she never had another chart topper, but she did reach the runner-up position three more times. As of early 2024, Tucker had a total of 56 Top 40 country hits (the last of which was in 2002), and 40 of them made it to the Top 10 (the last of which was in 1997). "Lizzie and the Rainman" eventually became a huge hit all over again — in the Jackson minivan — after all of my kids were old enough to appreciate it.
1368. The Essential Willie Nelson – Willie Nelson
Country singer/guitarist Willie Nelson had 41 Top 10 country hits by the end of 2023, including 20 that made it the whole way to #1. His first Top 10 country hit was "Willingly" (#10) with Shirley Collie in 1962, and his first #1 country hit was "Blues Eyes Crying in the Rain" (#1 country, #21 pop, #12 adult contemporary) in 1975. But Willie had already found success as a songwriter before that, penning standards for other artists such as "Funny How Time Slips Away" (#23 country for Billy Walker in '61, #22 pop for Jimmy Elledge in '62, #13 pop for Joe Hinton in '64, #12 country for Narvel Felts) "Hello Walls" (#1 country, #12 pop for Faron Young in '61), and "Crazy" (#2 country, #9 pop for Patsy Cline in '61). No wonder his first LP was titled ...And Then I Wrote. Released April 1, 2003, The Essential Willie Nelson featured 41 tracks from 1960-2002. It contains one of my all-time favorite songs, period: "Pancho and Lefty" with Merle Haggard (#1 country, #21 AC). Others I particularly enjoy include "Highwayman" with Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash (#1 country), "On the Road Again" (#1 country, #20 pop, #7 AC), "The Party's Over" (#24 country), "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" (#1 country, #44 pop, #29 AC), "Heartbreak Hotel" with Leon Russell (#1 country), "Whiskey River" with Waylon Jennings (#12 country), "Angel Flying to Close to the Ground" (#1 country), "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" with Waylon Jennings (#1 country, #42 pop, #29 AC), "Blue Skies" (#1 country, #32 AC), "Me and Paul" (original version did not chart, but a remake later went to #14 country), "Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)", "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time" (#1 country), "Family Bible" (#92 country), "Seven Spanish Angels" with Ray Charles (#1 country), "Forgiving You Was Easy" (#1 country), "Living in the Promiseland" (#1 country) and, of course, the aforementioned "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." Willie had two singles that hit the Top Five on both the pop and AC charts, and they're both on the The Essential Willie Nelson: "Always on My Mind" (#1 country, #2 AC, #5 pop) and "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" with Julio Iglesias (#1 country, #3 AC, #5 pop). ApologetiX spoofed the latter 2023. A 2015 rerelease of The Essential Willie Nelson had a different track listing featuring 45 songs, including nine from 2012-2015.
1369. Best of Roger Miller: His Greatest Songs - Roger Miller
Singer-songwriter Roger Miller was born in Texas but grew up in Oklahoma. He became one of the rare artists to have at least five singles reach the Top 10 on both the country and pop charts. What's even more remarkable is that he accomplished that feat during the height of the British Invasion in 1964-65. For the record, those songs were: "Dang Me" (#1 country for six weeks, #7 pop), "Chug-A-Lug" (#3 country, #9 pop), "King of the Road" (#1 country for five weeks, #4 pop), "Engine Engine #9 (#2 country, #7 pop), and, ironically, "England Swings" (#3 country, #8 pop). They're all on Best of Roger Miller: His Greatest Songs, which came out in 1991. Sadly, Miller died the following year at the age of 56 from throat and lung cancer. Overall, he had 12 Top 40 pop hits and 32 Top 40 country hits. Other numbers on this compilation that hit the Top 40 of both charts included "Do-Wacka-Do" (#15 country, #31 pop), "Kansas City Star" (#7 country, #31 pop), "Husbands and Wives" (#5 country, #26 pop), and "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd" (#35 country, #40 pop). Rounding things out were his first two country hits, "You Don't Want My Love" (#14 country) and "When Two Worlds Collide" (#6 country), both from 1960, plus his cover of "Me and Bobby McGee" (#12 country, #122 pop), from 1969. Seven of the 12 tracks on Best of Roger Miller: His Greatest Songs were classified as novelty records. He also supplied the voice for Alan-a-Dale, the rooster minstrel who acted as narrator in the 1973 Disney animated film Robin Hood. As if all that weren't enough, Miller went on to write the music and lyrics for the 1985 Broadway musical Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. It provided his final country Top 40 hit: "River in the Rain" (#36 country).
1370. All the Best - Glen Campbell
Long before Kenny Rogers in the late '70s and early '80s, singer/guitarist Glen Campbell was the classic triple threat on the pop, adult contemporary, and country charts from the late '60s through the mid-'70s, thanks in part to his television show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, which ran from 1968-72. A former studio musician and brief touring member of The Beach Boys, Campbell had his first big three-chart hit with "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (#26 pop, #12 AC, #2 country) in '67. He went on to have two #1 pop hits, five #1 country hits, and eight #1 AC hits, and they're all on this compilation: "Rhinestone Cowboy" (#1 pop, #1 AC, #1 country), "Southern Nights" (#1 pop, #1 AC, #1 country), "Wichita Lineman" (#1 AC, #1 country, #3 pop), "Galveston" (#1 AC, #1 country, #4 pop), "Try a Little Kindness" (#1 AC, #2 country, #23 pop), "Country Boy (You've Got Your Feet in L.A.)" (#1 AC, #3 country, #11 pop), "Don't Pull Your Love/Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" (#1 AC, #4 country, #27 pop), and "Sunflower" (#1 AC, #4 country, #39 pop). Released January 28, 2003, All the Best had 25 tracks in all, which is good, because Campbell had a boatload of hits. Some of my other favorites include "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" (#3 country, #6 AC, #32 pop), "Gentle On My Mind" (#8 AC, #30 country, #39 pop), "Where's the Playground Susie" (#10 AC, #26 pop, #28 country), "Houston (I'm Comin' to See You)" (#13 AC, #20 country, #68 pop) and "Hey Little One" #13 country, #20 AC, #54 pop). You may have noticed that Campbell mentioned a lot of cities in the titles of his hits. Well, dig this: In 2002, ApologetiX had the chance to do the "Steve Miller Trail"; within the calendar year of concerts, we went from Phoenix AZ all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A. and Northern California — just like Steve sang in his 1976 #1 hit song "Rock n' Me." However, in 2006, we played the "Glen Campbell Trail": Wichita KS on June 2, Phoenix AZ on June 18, L.A. from September 29-October 1, Houston (Cypress TX, a suburb of Houston) on October 13, and Galveston TX (technically, Dickinson TX, but Galveston is the closest major city) on October 15. By the way, the section of Phoenix we played was GLENdale! That's all the cities mentioned in titles of his singles that hit all three charts. For you trivia buffs, Campbell also had some other lesser-known country singles with place names, although none of them crossed over to the pop Hot 100. But here they are: "Kentucky Means Paradise" (#20 country) — we played Kentucky seven times in 2006. "Oklahoma Sunday Morning" (#15 country, #36 AC) — we played Bartlesville OK on June 3, although it was a Saturday night, not a Sunday morning. "Manhattan Kansas" (#6 country) — we didn't play Manhattan KS in 2006, but it was the first city we ever played in Kansas, way back in 2000 and, as mentioned above, we did play Kansas in 2006 (Wichita is 155 miles from Manhattan). "California" (#45 country, 1979) — we played in California six times in 2006. "Hollywood Smiles" (#80 country) — our concert on September 29 in Downey CA was just 20 miles from Hollywood. Furthermore, some of the guys in ApologetiX actually walked past Glen Campbell in a Houston airport a year or two before that, which gives new meaning to "Houston (I'm Comin' to See You)."
1371. Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn
I don't know which scenario seemed less likely for 72-year-old country-music legend Loretta Lynn's 42nd solo LP — that it would come out on Interscope Records (best known for gangsta rap and alternative rock) or that it would be produced by 28-year-old Jack White of The White Stripes. But both happened, and Van Lear Rose reached #2 on the Billboard country LPs chart and #24 on the Billboard 200, the first time Lynn had ever cracked the Top 40 of the latter. It also won the Grammy for Best Country Album. Released on April 27, 2004, Van Lear Rose sold fewer than 250,000 copies in the United States but received much critical acclaim. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #12 on its 2015 list of 50 Country Albums Every Rock Fan Should Own, and Country Music Television (CMT) put it at #18 on its list of 40 Greatest Albums. In addition to the title track, my personal picks are "Mad Mrs. Leroy Brown," "Miss Being Mrs.," and "Portland, Oregon," a duet with Jack White that won a Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.
1372. Now That's What I Call Music! 14 - Various Artists
Released on November 4, 2003, Now That's What I Call Music! 14 featured 20 tracks. I loved the opener, "Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z (#1 pop for eight weeks), but I generally gravitated to the last five or so selections on the Now CDs, because that's where they relegated the rock songs, and I was primarily looking for potential parody candidates for ApologetiX. Hey, any football fan can tell you that the most exciting things usually happen in the fourth quarter, right? On this CD, the final five were "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne (#21 pop, #31 alternative), "Girls & Boys" by Good Charlotte (#48 pop), "The Boys of Summer" by The Ataris (#20 pop, #36 mainstream, #2 alternative), "Someday" by Nickelback (#7 pop, #2 mainstream, #4 alternative), and "Here Without You" by Three Doors Down (#5 pop, #14 mainstream, #22 alternative). We wound up spoofing the tunes by Fountains of Wayne and The Ataris, although we'd recently covered other numbers by Good Charlotte, Nickelback, and Three Doors Down. Our Fountains of Wayne parody was eventually referenced on the front page of the Life section in USA Today on January 26, 2005. The article opened as follows: "A year and a half after its release, the hit ditty by Fountains of Wayne, about a guy lusting after his girlfriend's mother, continues to strut through the airwaves. Parodies abound, including one titled 'JC's Mom,' about Jesus and Mary." No, they didn't mention ApologetiX by name (sigh), but that was indeed our parody, which had just gone #1 on the alternative/modern chart in the American Christian Music Journal. Speaking of charts, Now 14 went to #3 on the Billboard 200 and sold three million copies, including my own.
1373. Three Dog Night With The London Symphony Orchestra - Three Dog Night
You thought I was through with Three Dog Night entries, didn't you? Well, the Dog wasn't done, so neither was I. Released on May 21, 2002, Three Dog Night: With the London Symphony Orchestra had some neat takes on 11 of their classic hits, two of which were given powerful orchestral preludes lasting about three minutes apiece — "Liar" and "One." The album kicks off with a six-minute overture. It reminds me a little of The Moody Blues classic 1967 LP Days of Future Passed, which was recorded with the London Festival Orchestra. Although one of the three lead Dogs, the extremely gifted Chuck Negron, had left the pack for good in 1985, the band's other two lead singers — Cory Wells and Danny Hutton — were both excellent vocalists and shared duties on any songs on which Chuck had originally sung lead. The third vocal part was taken over by Paul Kingery, who had also played guitar for the band for a stretch in the '80s but switched to bass when he returned in the mid-'90s and has been with TDN ever since (He took over on guitars again in 2021). I loved the version of "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)" on this album; they did some really innovative things in the end section with letting the various band members take turns with solos. But my two favorite tracks were the brand-new numbers, "Sault Ste. Marie" (sung by Hutton) and "Overground" (sung by Wells). In addition to this album, I purchased a DVD, Three Dog Night Live With The Tennessee Symphony Orchestra, which also came out in 2002 ... different symphony orchestra from a different country with a slightly different set list but the same concept, only it's live, whereas the album was done in the studio.
|
