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.

1507. Mr. Moonlight - Foreigner
Original lead singer Lou Gramm returned to the Foreigner fold for their eighth studio LP in 1994 ... although he'd already sung on three new tunes for the '92 compilation The Very Best and Beyond. Unfortunately, Mr. Moonlight cratered at #136 on the Billboard 200, 19 notches lower than its Gramm-less predecessor, Unusual Heat. I bought a used copy of each in the summer of 2006. As one key member returned, two other longtime members departed — the entire rhythm section, in fact — drummer Dennis Elliott and bassist Rick Wills. Once again, there were no Hot 100 hits to be found, although two tracks charted elsewhere — "Under the Gun" (#28 mainstream rock) and "Until the End of Time" (#8 adult contemporary), which featured late '50s/early '60s rock legend Duane Eddy on lead guitar. They were both strong efforts and good choices for radio release. For my money, "All I Need to Know” may be the best tune on the album, which take its title from a line in the lyrics. I also enjoyed "Hole in My Soul" a lot. I'd read before that Lou Gramm had worried that their 1984 ballad "I Want to Know What Love Is" (which hit #1 in early '85) might wreck Foreigner's rock credibility, so I was a little surprised that Mr. Moonlight seemed more mellow overall than Unusual Heat. I had trouble taking one of the rockers, "Big Dog," seriously because of the lyrics, which almost turned it into a novelty tune in my opinion. I think it might have been more successful as an instrumental like "Tramontane" on the 1978 Double Vision LP. Although I generally prefer the harder side of Foreigner, I did like these relatively gentle songs from Mr. Moonlight: "White Lie," "Rain," "I Keep Hoping," and "Hand on My Heart." Like Unusual Heat, this album still had apparent appeal with fans in Switzerland and Germany, reaching #17 and #21 respectively in those countries. 

1508. Off the Deep End - "Weird Al" Yankovic
Released on April 14, 1992, Off the Deep End was "Weird Al" Yankovic's seventh LP and netted him his second Top 40 single — "Smells Like Nirvana" (#35), a parody of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Of course, Al's first Top 40 single was "Eat It" (#12) in 1984. But here's something that may surprise you: Each of those songs also hit the Top 40 on the mainstream rock chart! "Eat It" went to #38, and "Smells Like Nirvana" went to #35. Off the Deep End reached #17 on the Billboard 200, the same position as "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D, the source of "Eat It." Both albums went on to sell more than a million copies apiece. The second and final single from Off the Deep End was an original called "You Don't Love Me Anymore," my favorite non-parody on this project, although it failed to chart. There were four additional parodies: "I Can't Watch This" ("U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer), "The White Stuff" ("You Got It (The Right Stuff") by New Kids on the Block), "Taco Grande" (Rico Suave by Gerardo), and "The Plumbing Song" ("Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Blame It on the Rain" by Milli Vanilli). My favorites among those were "I Can't Watch This" and "Taco Grande," which featured a rap section in Spanish by Cheech Marin of Cheech & Chong. My second-favorite original was probably "When I Was Your Age," a style parody of Don Henley. It is particularly reminiscent of Henley's rock hit "If Dirt Were Dollars" (#8 mainstream), although some websites mistakenly attribute it to his biggest hit, "Dirty Laundry (#3 pop, #1 mainstream).  ApologetiX has spoofed "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "You Got It (The Right Stuff)."

1509. Hooterization: A Retrospective - The Hooters
I think it was sometime in the summer of 2006 when I came across this collection. Released September 3, 1996, Hooterization: A Retrospective featured 16 tracks, 14 of which from the Philadelphia group's first three major-release albums. I was familiar with their first two LPs, but not their third, so the four songs from that one were a delightful discovery, and they caused me to seek out the album from whence they came. I'll talk more about it (and subsequent Hooters albums) in upcoming entries. I loved that band back in 1985-87, and their later stuff did not disappoint, either. All seven of The Hooters' Hot 100 hits appeared on this collection: "Day by Day" (#18 pop, #3 mainstream rock), "And We Danced" (#21 pop, #3 mainstream), "Where Do the Children Go" (#38 pop, #34 mainstream), "All You Zombies" (#58 pop, #11 mainstream), "Johnny B" (#61 pop, #3 mainstream), "Satellite" (#61 pop, 13 mainstream), and "500 Miles" (#97 pop, #20 mainstream). Two other cuts had made the mainstream chart but not the pop chart: "Karla With a K" (#47 mainstream) and "Brother, Don' You Walk Away" (#37 mainstream). Hooterization also included a pair of well-performed live cover versions ... of The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," which was co-written by Hooters keyboardist/vocalist Rob Hyman. ApologetiX spoofed "And We Danced" in 2023.

1510. Alapalooza - "Weird Al" Yankovic
A year and a half after his Top 20 comeback album Off the Deep End, "Weird Al" Yankovic put out his eighth studio LP. Released on October 5, 1993, Alapalooza only reached #46 on the Billboard 200 and sold half a million copies. It spawned three singles — "Jurassic Park" ("Macarthur Park" by Richard Harris), "Bedrock Anthem" ("Under the Bridge" and "Give It Away" by Red Hot Chili Peppers), and "Achy Breaky Song" ("Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus) — but none of them hit the Hot 100. However, "Jurassic Park," reached #5 on the singles chart of the Canadian music-industry publication The Record. That parody was promoted with a killer claymation video, which received a Grammy nomination for Best Short Form Music Video. Alapaloozaalso featured a parody of Aerosmith's "Livin' on the Edge" titled "Livin' in the Fridge." It's tied with "Jurassic Park" for my favorite parody on Alapalooza, although I also really enjoyed "Achy Breaky Song." Al's albums usually contained a polka medley, but this time around he chose to do a full-fledged polka version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," which had re-entered the charts in '92 and gone all the way to #2. I thought Al's originals on Alapalooza were pretty strong overall, especially "She Never Told Me She Was a Mime" and the REM-ish "Frank's 2000" TV." There was also "Harvey the Wonder Hamster," a little ditty my two oldest daughters, Janna and Heather, would come to love when it was featured repeatedly on The Weird Al Show. That series ran from September–December 1997 — too early for them — but an ApologetiX fan sent me all 13 episodes on DVD in the mid-to-late 2000s, and that's how they discovered it.

1511. Voices of Babylon - The Outfield
About the same time I rediscovered The Hooters in 2006, I did some catching up with The Outfield, another band I used to love back in the '80s. Each of those groups released their first LPs in 1985 and their sophomore efforts in '87, but after I became a born-again Christian in early 1988, I fell out of touch. I was aware that The Outfield had put out a third LP, though, because one of my co-workers at Equitable Gas had owned the cassette and raved about it. I'm not sure he was aware that The Outfield wasn't a new act. The first single from Voices of Babylon, the title track, became the band's fourth Top 40 hit (#25) and their biggest mainstream rock hit (#2). The second single, "My Paradise" had moderate success (#72 pop, #34 mainstream). Those two tunes opened the album and made for a stunning musical combination. The Outfield really knew how to put their best foot forward; I felt the same way about the first two tracks on each of the previous LPs. They sounded great on headphones or cranked on your car stereo. For me, it's hard to top The Outfield's debut, Play Deep, but Voices of Babylon is right behind it. The group had a great signature sound, and it was polished to a shine on this project. Other highlights for me included "Part of Your Life," "The Night Ain't Over," and "Reach Out." I also liked "Taken by Surprise" and "No Point," but none of the 10 tracks are turkeys. Released on March 28, 1989, Voices of Babylonwent to #53. The Outfield wound up releasing a total of eight studio LPs, and I plan to write about the rest as this list continues.

1512. Love and Theft - Bob Dylan
Columbia Records issued The Essential Bob Dylan on October 31, 2000. Less than a year later, that compilation was rendered obsolete ... or incomplete, at the very least ... by the arrival of his 31st studio LP. Love and Theft quickly gained acclaim not just as one of Dylan's best but as one of the year's best. Furthermore, it made Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, 2012, and 2020. Musically speaking, I think it's one of his most instantly embraceable albums, as long as you can get past his old weathered voice and his new pencil mustache. My favorites among the 12 tracks are "Mississippi," "High Water (For Charley Patton)," "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum," "Summer Days," "Honest With Me," and "Sugar Baby." I also liked "Po' Boy" and "Cry a While," but none of the other songs made me think, "Well, this one will take some getting used to." The whole thing was solid from start to finish. Released on September 11, 2001 — yes, that infamous day —  Love and Theft went to #5 on the Billboard 200 and sold about 750,000 copies in the United States. It won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

1513. Greatest Hits Volume II - "Weird Al" Yankovic
Released October 24, 1994, "Weird Al" Yankovic's Greatest Hits Volume II featured one "new" track — "Headline News" (#104), a parody of "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by Crash Test Dummies, covering the stories of Michael Fay, Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, and John and Lorena Bobbitt. In case you need your memory jogged, Fay was an American teenager convicted of vandalism in Singapore and punished by caning. I don't think the others require further elaboration; it's painful to even think about them. "Headline News" had initially appeared on the box set Permanent Record: Al in the Box, just a month earlier. Al's first Greatest Hitsalbum had come out six years earlier, but I never owned that one. I did, however, buy two other anthologies, The Food Album (1993) and The TV Album (1995). Neither of those featured any new tracks, so I'm just mentioning them in this entry. Greatest Hits Volume II peaked at #198 — maybe I should say "peeked," since it only got a brief glimpse —barely making it onto the Billboard 200. However, that was still better than the other four compilations I mentioned in this entry. Of the 12 tracks, seven were parodies, four were originals, and one was a polka medley.