How fickle is the finger of popularity in the rock world. In
\n1984, San Francisco-based Huey Lewis & The News were riding the
\ncrest of hipdom with their third release
\nSports<\/i>, sharing the spotlight with such artists as Michael
\nJackson, Prince and Bruce Springsteen. Nowadays, Jackson holds onto
\nthe dream he is still the “King Of Pop,” there technically is no
\nmore Prince (having changed his name to the symbol), Springsteen no
\nlonger is a mega star and has turned into the Dylan of the ’90s.
\nBut while the sales may no longer be there, Huey Lewis & The
\nNews have basically stayed the same.<\/p>\n
What was it about these guys who worshipped the doo-wop style of
\nthe ’50s? What made them top the airwaves with cuts like “I Want A
\nNew Drug,” “The Heart Of Rock & Roll” and “Heart And Soul”?
\nSimple: they took a no-bullshit, no Spandex-and-leather approach to
\ntheir music and presented it the way it should be. Most of all,
\nthey believed in it – something I don’t think you can say many
\nbands do these days.<\/p>\n
And though it peaked 14 years ago,
\nSports<\/i> still maintains a fresh sound – the tunes have hardly
\naged, and are still enjoyable to listen to.
\n(Editor’s note: Since this review was written, a re-mastered
\nversion with bonus tracks has been released.)<\/i><\/p>\n
Having first cut his teeth with the local band Clover (trivia:
\nwhat band did Lewis back up in the late ’70s? Answer: Thin Lizzy),
\nLewis was an experienced veteran of the rock scene.After The News’
\ndebut album met with consumer apathy, they came back strong to get
\nthe public’s attention with
\nPicture This<\/i> (spawning two hits, “Workin’ For A Livin'” and
\n“Do You Believe In Love”).The band was obviously primed to hit big
\n– and they smashed into the mainstream with the first single from
\nSports<\/i>, “Heart And Soul.”<\/p>\n
But this wasn’t your typical rock band. While they had a
\ncompetent guitarist in Chris Hayes, the solos often went to
\nsaxophonist Johnny Colla – “The Heart Of Rock & Roll” showed
\noff his talents on the reeds. With a backbone of Mario Cipollina on
\nbass, Bill Gibson on drums and Sean Hopper on keyboards, Lewis was
\nfreed up to be not only the frontman of the group but also the
\npersonality of the band. His roles in videos from this album, such
\nas for that of “I Want A New Drug,” were in no small part a main
\nreason why this band did so well. With MTV still in its infancy,
\nthe group was ready to take advantage of the new medium and use it
\nto their advantage. And, truth be told, Lewis was very much a
\n“pretty boy,” though this worked to the advantage of the band. Here
\nwas a “ladies’ man” who could actually do more than pose – kind of
\nlike the antithesis of Lucky Vanous.<\/p>\n
But if the music wasn’t as strong as it is, this band would have
\nbeen another trivia question on the lines of Rockwell. You still
\noccasionally hear “The Heart Of Rock & Roll” and “Heart And
\nSoul” on the radio. Their doo-wop tribute, “If This Is It,” stays
\ntrue to the style of the artists of the past, while “Walking On A
\nThin Line” has The News carving out their own style and sound
\nunlike anything they had done prior. However, other attempts, such
\nas “Finally Found A Home” and “You Crack Me Up,” fail to hit the
\nmark. Their two efforts at blues, “Bad Is Bad” and “Honky Tonk
\nBlues,” are not bad efforts, though the latter is more of a
\nshuffle.<\/p>\n
Despite the fact this album stayed on the charts for three
\nyears, it’s hard to believe that none of the singles made it to the
\ncoveted number one slot. (That honor came courtesy of an appearance
\non the
\nBack To The Future<\/i> soundtrack, “The Power Of Love.”) The
\nband also found themselves on the delivery end of a lawsuit – word
\nof advice, don’t invite Lewis and Ray Parker, Jr. to the same
\nparty. ‘Nuff said.<\/p>\n
I still believe that
\nSports<\/i> was the swansong of this band – how do you top an
\nalbum this good? To their credit, their follow-up
\nFore!<\/i> continued their good-luck streak. And while the hits
\nbegan to dry up in the late ’80s, Huey Lewis And The News have
\ncontinued to slug it out on their own terms.<\/p>\n
It’s a little harder to find this album these days (though I
\nfound a vinyl copy for a dollar in the bins of my local haunt
\nearlier Sunday afternoon), but the search is very much worth it.
\nWhile many groups of the MTV-era rock world have come and gone,
\nSports<\/i> is excellent proof that something good came out of
\nthat time period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5806],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-35702","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-huey-lewis-the-news","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35702"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35702"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}