Huey Lewis and the News Appreciation Thread

[Moviefan2k4]

I did a poll about this popular band a whopping thirteen years ago (has it really been that long?), but never got much of a response. So with a recent renewed interest in the group's music by the film industry, I thought a general thread about them would be appropriate.

Huey Lewis (a.k.a. Hugh Anthony Cregg III) was born July 5, 1950 in New York City, but raised in Marin County, CA. At age 17, he graduated from the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. At the urging of his father, he spent a year overseas playing blues music on the street with his harmonica, in return for room and board. It was during this time that his first concerts happened in Madrid, Spain, and soon afterward he returned to the USA.

Upon coming home, Huey enrolled in Cornell University back in New York, but soon grew tired of it. He joined a band called Slippery Elm in 1969, and moved to the San Francisco Bay. Two years later, he joined a band called Clover, and in 1976 they traveled to Great Britain, recording two albums but not finding much success. Clover disbanded in 1978, and Huey formed a new group called The American Express.

In 1980 the band became known as Huey Lewis and the News (supposedly due to complaints by the American Express credit card company), and their first self-titled album was released in 1980. Sadly however, it too failed, but two years later they scored a Top 40 hit with their song "Do You Believe in Love". This began their rise to stratospheric fame, with songs such as "Heart & Soul", "I Want a New Drug", "The Heart of Rock and Roll" and "If This Is It".

Their pinnacle would happen in 1985, when Huey was approached by director Robert Zemeckis to create a song for his time-travel film Back to the Future. Zemeckis explained to Huey that in the context of the story, the News would be the favorite band of lead character Marty McFly. Huey was flattered, but originally turned down the offer since he knew nothing about writing film music and didn't like the idea of the film's title being applied to a song. Zemeckis responded by saying it didn't matter - he just wanted a good number for the soundtrack, so Huey ultimately contributed two songs. Both were hits: "Back in Time" for the film's end credits, and "The Power of Love" which plays in the story's first act. Zemeckis was so pleased by Huey's efforts, he gave him a brief cameo as a snobby talent-show judge, who tells Marty his own band's music is "just too darn loud".

Following this period, the band spent the next 19 years releasing steady albums, followed by a 25th-anniversary live record in 2004. 2010 saw them release their record "Soulsville", and over the next eight years they toured extensively, performing approximately 70 dates a year. But in 2018 Huey developed the inner ear disorder known as Ménière's disease, rendering him unable to accurately comprehend the sound of his own voice. As such, the group released one final effort of previously-recorded material in 2020, called "Weather", and then officially disbanded. In total, the group sold more than 30 million albums, and a new generation has recently discovered them, thanks to "The Power of Love" being featured on the soundtrack to the Marvel Studios film, Deadpool & Wolverine.