J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.
Here are the stories behind the songs on our 20th single of 2025:
THIS VERY HILL
I first heard "Blueberry Hill" in the '70s, either on a television infomercial for a Fats Domino compilation or sung by Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. I can't remember which preceded the other, but I've liked the song ever since.
Fats' version peaked at #2 in January 1957, but it had already been a #2 hit for Glenn Miller in September 1940. Kay Kyser (#15) and Russ Morgan (#17) also had success with it later that month while Miller was still holding at #2. Those three were all big-band versions. Fats made it his own and added that spectacular piano intro, which ApX keyboardist Rich Mannion replicated so well.
I don't think I ever considered spoofing it until September 23, 2025. Suddenly, it just seemed like a perfect fit for our next album. I had the parody title by September 28 and the lyrics finished by October 2.
It's our 10th "vertical" song (addressed specifically to the Lord) of 2025. We did three others in 2024. When you consider that we'd only done about 20 of them from 1992-2023, that's a pretty noteworthy development! It wasn't deliberate on my part; that's just how they've been flowing.
I grew up on a hill. In fact, our neighborhood was called Hillcrest, and the streets were named hilly things like Fairmont, Greenmont, Summit, Longview, Grandview, and Briar Hill. We didn't have any blueberries there, but my neighbors the Haslams had raspberry bushes and graciously allowed me to partake of them to my heart's desire. Mmm!
"This Very Hill" features J. Jackson on lead vocals, Tom Tincha on guitars, Rich Mannion on keyboards, and Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner on drums and percussion.
SATAN’S ALL OVER
While preparing to write this journal entry, I was reminded of a different parody that inspired it, so I did a word search in my files and found this text I sent to ApX drummer Jimmy “Vegas” Tanner on October 14, 2021:
"I added another MP3 to the Google Drive today. I got an idea for 'Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On' by Jerry Lee Lewis called 'Whole Lotta Satan Goin’ On' … I wasn’t thinking of the song. The idea just popped into my head from out of the blue, and I thought, 'I’ll bet lots of people have used that pun before in articles, etc.' But when I googled it, the phrase 'whole lot of Satan goin’ on' only had two results, both from obscure sources and neither a parody. So that was great!”
Well, we never ended up doing "Whole Lotta Satan Goin' On," because it soon dawned on me that I could write a similarly-themed parody of The Guess Who's "Shakin' All Over' as "Satan's All Over" instead. I preferred that option, because the new title could be taken with both negative and positive connotations:
1. Yes, Satan seems to be active everywhere these days. 2. But Satan was defeated by Christ and his eventual doom is assured. Plus, it didn't hurt that I'd always loved the Guess Who tune.
Anyway, here's the crazy thing I just noticed: The text's date was October 14, 2021, so I thought, "Hey, I recorded the vocals for 'Satan's All Over' in October 2025. I wonder what the exact day was?" I just checked, and it was October 14, 2025 — four years to the very day!
"Satan's All Over" features J. Jackson on lead vocals and backing vocals, Tom Tincha on guitars, Rich Mannion on keyboards, Keith Haynie on bass, and Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner on drums and percussion.
