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Influential Albums 1437-1443
Thu., Apr. 18. 2024 8:02pm EDT
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.
1437. Soul Hits of the '60s - Various Artists
Released by Universal Special Products, Soul Hits of the '60s was a collection of 10 songs that did well on both the pop and R&B charts ... except for the one song with the word "soul" actually in its title — "(You're My) Soul And Inspiration" by The Righteous Brothers, which hit #1 on the Hot 100 but never made the R&B chart. Five of the tracks hit the Top 10 on both charts: "Sunny" by Bobby Hebb (#2 pop, #3 R&B), "Handy Man" by Jimmy Jones (#2 pop, #3 R&B), "Only The Strong Survive" by Jerry Butler (#4 pop, #1 R&B), "A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around And Fall In Love)" by Dinah Washington & Brook Benton (#7 pop, #1 R&B), and "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" by James Brown (#8 pop, #1 R&B). Three others made the Top 10 on one of the two charts: "Harbor Lights" by The Platters (#8 pop, #15 R&B), "My True Confession" by Brook Benton (#22 pop, #7 R&B), and "Ta Ta" by Clyde McPhatter (#23 pop, #7 R&B). The remaining track was "Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You" by The Jimmy Castor Bunch (#31 pop, #16 R&B). You may have noticed that Brook Benton appears twice on this collection — "A Rockin' Good Way" is the opener, and "My True Confession" is the closer. However, that's just scratching the surface of his prolific chart career. Benton had seven #1 R&B singles and 24 Top 40 pop hits, eight of which reached the Top 10. Fittingly, most of the tracks on Soul Hits of the'60s were performed by soul-o artists.
1438. Island 40, Vol. 1: 1959-1964: Ska's the Limit - Various Artists
Founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong, Island Records is familiar to American music fans of my generation because of albums and singles by Bob Marley and The Wailers, U2, Robert Palmer, Steve Winwood and others. In England, they were also associated with such notable acts as Roxy Music, King Crimson, Traffic, Free, Cat Stevens, Sparks, and Fairport Convention. Here in the States, most of us don't immediately recognize those folks as Island artists, because their releases were licensed to and distributed by other record companies such as A&M, Capitol, and Atlantic. Island 40 was a five-part chronological series of LPs celebrating the label's 40th anniversary. I bought the first volume, which mainly comprised Jamaican blues and ska, for one specific song that was difficult to find on other '60s compilations, "My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small (#2). Released in 1964, it was the last of 20 songs on Island 40, Vol. 1: 1959-1964: Ska's the Limit and was the first big U.K. and U.S. hit for the label. My daughter Heather loved it, too. Other songs I particularly enjoyed are "Jumpin' Beans" by The Beans, "Independent Jamaica" by Lord Creator, "King of Kings" by Jimmy Cliff, "Six and Seven Books" by The Maytals, "Penny Reel" by Eric Morris, "Come Down" by Lord Tanamo, and "Solomon Grundie" by Eric Morris. I also liked "Judge Not" by Bob Marley (his first recorded single), "Boogie in My Bones" by Laurel Aitken, "Please Let Me Go" by Owen Gray, and "Carry, Go, Bring, Come" by Justin Hinds & The Dominoes. However, if you're looking for the manic-paced ska of the '90s (hey, I dig that, too), you're shopping in the wrong place.
1439. Dick Bartley Presents: Classic Oldies 1965-1969 - Various Artists
This was one of the best single-disc, multiple-artist oldies LPs I've ever come across, because it featured a lot of really great songs, many of which I'd seldom — or never — seen on other collections. Dick Bartley got his start as a disc jockey in 1969 at a radio station in Lynchburg VA and eventually found greater fame hosting nationally broadcast oldies shows for four decades, including Dick Bartley's Classic Hits, Rock and Roll's Greatest Hits, and Yesterday Live. He retired at the end of 2021, but I bought this CD in 2005. Dick Bartley Presents: Classic Oldies 1965-1969 contained 18 hits, the biggest of which were "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration" by The Righteous Brothers (#1), "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (#2), "Keep on Dancing" by The Gentrys (#4), "Bend Me, Shape Me" by American Breed (#5), and "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum (#5), which ApologetiX spoofed in 2023. I've always loved "Bend Me, Shape Me," and thought "Fire" was pretty cool when I was in college. The next highest-charting selection on this compilation was "You've Got Your Troubles" by The Fortunes (#7), which was on another CD I'd recently purchased, but the rest of the album was full of sweet surprises. First, a couple of old favorites of mine, "Love Is All Around" by The Troggs (#7) and "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart (#8), then three other terrific Top 10 singles: "The Clapping Song (Clap Pat Clap Slap)" by Shirley Ellis (#8), "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker & The Aces (#9 U.S., #1 U.K.), and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by The Silkie (#10). There was also The Walker Brothers' classic "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" (#13 U.S., #1 U.K.) and Janis Ian's daring debut single, "Society's Child (Baby, I've Been Thinking)" (#14). But the quality didn't let up when I got to the lower-charting hits like "Mendocino" by Sir Douglas Quintet (#27); "You Wouldn't Listen" by Ides of March (#42), a near-miss four years before they hit it big with "Vehicle"; and "Peter Rabbit" by Dee Jay and the Runaways (#45), which was sort of like The Dave Clark Five meets "Wooly Bully" with a bunny. Neat stuff. However, even with all those awesome tunes, the thing I cherish most about Dick Bartley Presents: Classic Oldies 1965-1969 is that it introduced me to the Chicago-based soft-rock band New Colony Six by including both of their Top 40 hits: "Things I'd Like to Say" (#16) and "I Will Always Think About You" (#22). I don't know what it is about those two songs, but I love 'em, especially "Things I'd Like to Say," which gets me choked up every time I listen to it.
1440. Billboard Top Pop Hits: 1969 - Various Artists
As a lead singer and lyricist, I often jokingly remind my keyboardist/composer friends that a piece of music isn't a song unless you can sing it (i.e. it has lyrics). Be that as it may, you might be surprised to know that some of my favorite hits from the '50s-'80s were actually wordless wonders. Those types of records used to hit the Top 10 fairly frequently. Billboard Top Pop Hits: 1969 featured three excellent instrumentals: "Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet" by Henry Mancini (#1), "Soulful Strut" by Young-Holt Unlimited (#3), and "Hawaii Five-O" by The Ventures (#4). None of those particular tunes were commonplace on other collections, and the same could be said for "In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)" by Zager & Evans (#1), "Wedding Bell Blues" by The 5th Dimension (#1), and "Jean" by Oliver (#2). The rest of the record consisted of "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat & Tears (#2), "Worst That Could Happen" by Brooklyn Bridge (#3), "Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell (#3), and "Sweet Cherry Wine" by Tommy James & The Shondells (#7). ApologetiX spoofed "Spinning Wheel" in 2016. This album is not to be confused with Billboard Top Rock 'n' Roll Hits: 1969, another Rhino Records release with a similar title but an entirely different lineup "In the Year 2525" topped the pop chart for six weeks, but Zager & Evans never had another Hot 100 hit. The closest they came was the morbid "Mr. Turnkey," which bubbled under at #106 and somehow managed to make "In the Year 2525" seem upbeat by comparison. My old college buddy Tom and I were in a record store once where that single was mislabeled as "Mr. Turkey," which still makes me giggle ... and almost gobble.
1441. Hits: The Road - ApologetiX
ApologetiX was very busy in 2005. In March, we released our 11th CD, Apol-acoustiX (as mentioned in an earlier entry), but we were just getting started. By the end of the year, we had played 103 concerts in 32 different states — high-water marks for us at the time, although we'd later surpass that number of concerts and states in a single year. We also completed our quest to play in all 50 states. The final frontier was Alaska, where we played three shows in late December. Meanwhile, almost nine months earlier, we had filmed concerts in Greenfield IN and Springfield MO for our first full-length DVD, Samson Comes Alive. Although the DVD itself wouldn't be ready and released until January 2006, we took the audio recordings from 17 of the 21 songs and used them for our first live LP, Hits: The Road, which came out in December 2005. We left the other four songs off, because other versions of them had just appeared on our New and Used Hits compilation the previous year. In their place, we added three previously unreleased parodies that were recorded live especially for Hits: The Road in Moravia NY, Newark DE, and Green Bay WI.
1442. Entertainment Weekly: The Greatest Hits 1989 - Various Artists
I used to be a regular subscriber to Entertainment Weekly in the early 2000s. Been there, done that, got the CD. You've heard the expression (and the song) "It's five o' clock somewhere"? Well, this compilation could be called "It's Top Five Somewhere." Everything on Entertainment Weekly: The Greatest Hits 1989 hit the top five on at least one significant chart. Five of the 12 tracks hit #1 on the Hot 100: "She Drives Me Crazy" by Fine Young Cannibals, "Rock On" by Michael Damian, "The Living Years" by Mike + The Mechanics, "Toy Soldiers" by Martika, and "Right Hear Waiting" by Richard Marx. Two additional songs topped other charts: "Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)" by Soul II Soul (#1 R&B, #4 pop) and "So Alive" by Love and Rockets (#1 alternative, #3 pop). The remaining five: "Heaven" by Warrant (#2 pop), "Bust a Move" by Young MC (#2 rap, #7 pop), "Funky Cold Medina" by Tone Loc (#3 pop), "Angel Eyes" by The Jeff Healey Band (#5 pop), and "Kiss" by The Art of Noise Featuring Tom Jones (#5 U.K., #31 U.S. pop, #14 U.S. alternative). ApologetiX spoofed "Right Here Waiting" in 2016. We released a parody of "Rock On" that year, too, but imitated the original David Essex version, which also hit the top five (#5 Billboard, #1 Cash Box, #3 U.K.).
1443. Cosmopolitan Vol. 4 - Various Artists
Yes, you read the title right; it seems like everybody was getting into the act of putting out compilations. If Entertainment Weekly could do it, why not Cosmopolitan? In the fourth volume of the series, the magazine went from Helen Gurley Brown to Bobby Brown. I found a used copy of this CD at a record store in the mid-2000s. It featured 10 selections from 1981-91. Five of the tracks topped four different charts: "You Belong to the City" by Glenn Frey (#1 mainstream rock, #1 pop), "Harden My Heart" by Quarterflash (#1 mainstream rock, #3 pop), "Every Little Step" by Bobby Brown (#1 R&B, #3 pop), "New Attitude" by Patti LaBelle (#1 dance, #3 R&B, #17 pop), and "Everything Changes" by Kathy Troccoli (#1 Christian hit radio, #6 adult contemporary, #14 pop). As for the rest of Cosmopolitan Vol. 4, there was "The Loco-Motion" by Kylie Minogue (#3 pop, #2 U.K.), "Circle in the Sand" by Belinda Carlisle (#5 AC, #7 pop), "I Can Dream About You" by Dan Hartman (#6 pop), "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" by Timbuk 3 (#14 mainstream rock, #19 pop), and "Too Cool to Fall in Love" by Jill Sobule (#17 AC). I used to sing "The Future's So Bright" in my last secular band in 1987. ApologetiX spoofed "Harden My Heart" in 2016 and "I Can Dream About You" in 2020. We also did a parody of "The Loco-Motion" in 2023, but it was Grand Funk's version.
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