#classicrock
I say it all of the time. 1984 was the greatest year in music history. It was so fiercely competitive, Only 5 albums went to the #1 spot, the least amount in history. Michael Jackson Thriller, Prince Purple Rain and Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA battled it out for chart supremacy and Huey Lewis and the News, the ferocious blue collar bar bad from San Francisco was one of those 5. Huey tells us how he created many top 10 hits from the album including Heart and Soul and the Heart of Rock and Roll and how he found out that the Heart of Rock and Roll can actually be in Halifax Canada!
So In the fall of 1983, Huey Lewis and his band the news released their third album, Sports. Huey had started out in the band Clover in the San Francisco scene before releasing one single under the name Huey Lewis and the American Express, with secured a deal with Chrysalis records. Chrysaslis wasn’t crazy about his band name, fearing that the credit card company would sure them. So In early 1980 the band changed their name to Huey Lewis and the News and released their debut record, which was self titled. It didn’t make much noise on the charts, It went to #203 on the album charts but it was a stepping stone to their sophomore album, Picture This.
Released in early 1982, it put Huey and the news on the map as their first single Do You Believe in Love climbed the charts up to #7, with it’s soulful musings and heavenly sing along chorus. The song was actually written by famed producer Mutt Lange. From there the second single Hope You love me like you Say you Do went to the top 40 and another single Working For A Livin, an original penned by Huey and band mate Chris Hayes just missed the top 40 stalling at #41 although the song has become a classic of the news canon.
The first single was a cover of a song written by the deadshot team of Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, Heart and Soul was a massive, hooky slice of New Wave Doo Wop with a smattering of rock. It was a #1 hit on the rock tracks chart and #8 on the billboard Hot 100 and we have the story from Huey coming up next.. The next single was I Want A New Drug. IT topped the Dance Club Play Chart, and became their biggest hit up to that point, going to #6 on the Hot 100. Huey wrote the song in a mere few minutes and it was such a massive hit with an equally transfixing music video played in rotation on MTV, that the song was parodied by Weird Al Yankovic and It also may have compelled the producers of the movie Ghostbusters to ask Huey to write a song for the movie, when he turned them down, they were said to have wanted a song similar to the vibe of I Want A new Drug and let’s just say that they probably got exactly that. That’s a story for another day, and we do have the story from Huey that will be coming down the road.