Huey Lewis & The News - Sports (1983)

Note: the CD I listened to was not the expanded 1999 reissue.

This past week I received an email concerning my upcoming 30 year high school reunion. I was immediately swept into a nostalgic daze (granted, that doesn't take much). Such a daze usually means that I pull out the old high school annuals and listen to Simple Minds or Joe Jackson as I wistfully thumb through the pages. But for some reason I couldn't get the song If This Is It out of my mind so I figured I'd listen to Sports this time around. Sure the lyrics are silly, but most songs here come with at least one infectious hook. Add some top notch self-production to those hooks and the radio friendly songs become mindlessly enjoyable. So mindless that I've heard these songs hundreds of times yet don't know the lyrics when I try to sing along.

Guest critic Patrick Bateman claims that this album is when Huey Lewis & The News came into their own, commercially and artistically: "The whole album has a clear, crisp sound and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost." Years later, Lewis would take issue with Bateman's work.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone (★★½): "a few bricks shy of a load"
• Robert Christgau (B+): "I simply succumb to the stupid pleasures of his big fat rockcraft"
• Stereo Review: "who could ask for more?"
• Billboard: "Expect both mainstream pop and old guard AOR to take notice"
• CashBox: "anything but commonplace"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #1
• Billboard Rock: #2
• Billboard CD: #10
• CashBox: #2
• CashBox CD: #8
• Rolling Stone: #2

The fact that this album hit #1 in 1984 is quite a feat. Only 5 albums held the top spot that year. In addition to Sports: Michael Jackson's Thriller, the Footloose soundtrack, Bruce Springsteen's Born In the USA, and Prince's Purple Rain.

Tracks:  My favorite tracks are Heart And Soul and If This Is It. I'll usually skip Bad Is Bad, You Crack Me Up, and a too fast, below par cover of Hank Williams' Honky Tonk Blues.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  Because songs from this disc were in heavy rotation on MTV and the radio during the 1983-84 school year, music from this album played a large role in the soundtrack to my senior year of high school:

• Heart And Soul (single released August 30, 1983, peaked at #8. I actually bought the 45 - probably one of the last 7" singles I ever purchased.)
• I Want A New Drug (single released January 3, 1984, peaked at #6)
• The Heart Of Rock & Roll (single released April 10, 1984, peaked at peaked at #6)

After the band played Houston in 1984, a girl showed up at school with a concert tee that had "I WANT A NEW DRUG" printed in huge block letters on the back of the shirt. Since I lived in the Bible Belt, I felt positive the girl would get called to the office and told to change her shirt. I don't know if she ever did.

I also have a memory of The Heart Of Rock & Roll playing loudly at a senior pool party one evening. When the list of cities in the song finally got around to Austin, all my friends who were headed to UT that fall went crazy like they'd just won the lottery.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Greatest Hits (2006)

Blog post #850

Huey Lewis & The News - Greatest Hits (2006)

GREATEST HITS FORTNIGHT (FEBRUARY 6-19, 2012)

When we received yet another sub-par performance of our National Anthem at the big football game this past weekend, I thought of this group, which I remember giving fantastic a capella versions of the SSB back in the '80s.(It's probably on YouTube. They still might do this from time to time, but I haven't seen them in a while.) In any case, HL&TN was a West Coast bar band done good who made it playing their updated version of '50s rock, complete with power chords, incredible harmonies, and cheesy lyrics about love and girls. If you're my age, then you know most of the songs here and sing along when they come up on your iPod's shuffle. In the words of Patrick Bateman, "these guys are the best American band of the 1980s on this or any other continent - and it has with it Huey Lewis, a vocalist, musician and writer who just can't be topped." (Huey's song, Hip To Be Square, plays an important role in Patrick's movie.)

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #70

Tracks: 21 tracks clock in at about 80 minutes so you definitely get your money's worth, although some people might complain that these are the single edits, not the album tracks. I'd consider myself a casual fan, so I was surprised to be familiar with 18 of the 21 songs prior to purchasing this compilation. I honestly don't remember the band's top 40 career lasting that long. I enjoy most of the songs here, with the exception of Stuck With You, Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do, But It's Alright, and Huey duetting with Gwyneth Paltrow on Cruisin'. Because of her idiotic statements in the past few years, I've lost all respect for Paltrow (she named her kid Apple, for crap's sake), but she's never had any business covering Smokey Freakin' Robinson. Of the songs I hadn't heard before, I've come to like Small World which has a saxophone solo by bossa nova king, Stan Getz. Somehow, that combination actually works.

Song	Year	Hot 100	Rock
The Heart Of Rock & Roll	1984	6	5
I Want A New Drug	1984	6	7
The Power Of Love	1985	1	1
Jacob's Ladder	1987	1	10
Stuck With You	1986	1	2
Doing It All For My Baby	1987	6	-
If This Is It	1984	6	3
Do You Believe In Love	1982	7	12
Heart And Soul	1983	8	1
Back In Time	1985	-	3
Perfect World	1988	3	5
I Know What I Like	1987	9	25
Trouble In Paradise (Live)	1985	-	-
It's Alright	1993	-	-
Cruisin'	2000	109	-
Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do	1982	36	-
Small World	1988	25	28
But It's Alright	1994	54	-
Hip To Be Square	1986	3	1
Couple Days Off	1991	11	3
Workin' For A Livin'	1982	41	20

Missing Top 40 hits: Walking On A Thin Line (#18, 1984) and It Hit Me Like A Hammer (#21, 1991).

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I never purchased any of the band's albums back in the '80s, but remember "borrowing" a friend's cassette of Sports for about a year. I'm embarrassed to say it, but I guess I have to admit I was that guy: the guy that was terribly slow in returning things. I like to think I'm not that guy anymore.

I also have a very special memory connected to one of the songs on this disc, but I think I'll keep that one to myself this time.