Formation In 1972, singer/harmonica player
Huey Lewis and keyboardist
Sean Hopper joined the
Bay Area jazz-funk band
Clover. Clover had recorded several albums in the 1970s, and in the middle of the decade transplanted themselves to Britain to become part of the UK
pub rock scene. Without Lewis, they eventually became the backing band for
Elvis Costello's first album
My Aim Is True. Lewis also worked with Irish band
Thin Lizzy, contributing harmonica to the song "Baby Drives Me Crazy", recorded onstage for the
Live and Dangerous album. Thin Lizzy bassist/vocalist
Phil Lynott introduces Lewis by name during the song. The band returned to the Bay Area by the end of the 1970s. Clover's main competition in the Bay Area jazz-funk scene was a band called Soundhole, whose members included drummer
Bill Gibson, saxophonist/rhythm guitarist
Johnny Colla, and bassist
Mario Cipollina (brother of
John Cipollina of
Quicksilver Messenger Service). Like Clover, Soundhole had spent time backing singer
Van Morrison. After getting a singles contract from
Phonogram Records in 1978, Huey Lewis joined Soundhole veterans Hopper, Gibson, Colla, and Cipollina to form a new group, Huey Lewis & The American Express. Although they played gigs under this name, in 1979, they recorded and released a single simply as "American Express". The single, "Exodisco" (a disco version of the theme from the film
Exodus) was largely ignored. The B-side of this record, "Kick Back", is a song that had previously been performed live by Lewis and his former band, Clover. In 1979, the band was joined by lead guitarist Chris Hayes and moved to
Chrysalis Records, which occurred after their demo tape was heard by
Pablo Cruise manager Bob Brown, who helped them land a record deal with the label. Chrysalis did not like the name
American Express, fearing trademark infringement charges from the
credit card company, so the band changed its name. Later in 1980, the band released their first studio album, a self-titled LP,
Huey Lewis and the News. It went largely unnoticed. In 1982, the band released their second studio album, the self-produced
Picture This. The album turned gold, fueled by the breakout success of the hit single "
Do You Believe in Love", written by former Clover producer
"Mutt" Lange. Largely because of the single, the album remained on the
Billboard 200 album chart for 35 weeks and peaked at No. 13. The follow-up singles from
Picture This, "Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do" and "
Workin' for a Livin'", followed, with limited success.
Mainstream success Due to record label delays on the release of their third studio album,
Sports, Huey Lewis and the News returned in late 1983 to touring small clubs in a bus to promote the record (eventually known as the "Workin' for a Livin'" tour). The new album initially hit number six in the U.S. when first released. However,
Sports slowly became a number-one hit in 1984, and went multi-platinum in 1985, thanks to the band's frequent touring and a series of videos that received heavy MTV airplay. Four singles from the album reached the top 10 of the
Billboard Hot 100: "
Heart and Soul" reached number eight, while "
I Want a New Drug", "
The Heart of Rock & Roll", and "
If This Is It" all reached number six. The album has sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. alone. At the beginning of 1985, the band participated in the all-star
USA for Africa charity single "
We Are the World", with Lewis taking a solo vocal. The song topped music charts throughout the world and became the fastest-selling American pop single in history. They were to play the Philadelphia leg of the
Live Aid benefit concert that July, but pulled out two weeks before the concert over concerns that the money raised by the single and other efforts had not been spent to benefit
Ethiopian famine victims, earning them vociferous criticism from USA for Africa organizer
Harry Belafonte. A year later a
Spin article suggested that much of the money raised from the single and concert had been misspent. Their song "
The Power of Love" was a number-one U.S. hit and featured in the 1985 film
Back to the Future, for which they also recorded the song, "
Back in Time". Lewis has a cameo appearance in the film as a faculty member who rejects Marty McFly's band's audition for the school's "Battle of the Bands" contest. As an inside joke, the piece the band plays is an instrumental hard rock version of "The Power of Love" (Lewis's response: "Hold it, fellas ... I'm afraid you're just too darn loud"). "The Power of Love" was nominated for an Academy Award. Following the success of "The Power of Love" and
Back to the Future, Huey Lewis and the News released their fourth studio album,
Fore!, in 1986.
Fore! followed the success of
Sports and reached number-one on the
Billboard 200. The album spawned the number-one singles, "
Stuck with You" and "
Jacob's Ladder", as well as the
mainstream rock hit "
Hip to Be Square". In all, the album had five top-ten singles on the
Billboard Hot 100 and was certified triple platinum. The band continued to tour throughout 1987, and released
Small World in 1988. After the previous two multi-platinum albums,
Small World was considered "noticeably weaker", peaking at number 11 and only going platinum. The album had one top-ten single, "Perfect World", which reached number three on the pop chart. At the end of the Small World tour in 1989, the band took a break from recording and heavy touring, and parted ways with Chrysalis Records. In 1991, they released
Hard at Play on the
EMI label in the US and Chrysalis in the UK, which went back to the R&B/rock sound of their earlier albums, and released the hit singles "
Couple Days Off" (number 11) and "It Hit Me Like a Hammer" (number 21). The band once again changed labels, this time signing with
Elektra Records, releasing a cover album in 1994 called
Four Chords & Several Years Ago, featuring
doo-wop and rock songs from the 1950s and 1960s. The album charted on the
Billboard 200 and had two hits on
adult contemporary radio. In early 1996, the band released the greatest hits album
Time Flies which focused primarily on the releases from
Picture This,
Sports, and
Fore!, and included four new tracks.
The 21st century in August 2008 The band's lineup has changed moderately since its heyday. Bassist Mario Cipollina left the band in 1995, and was replaced by John Pierce.
Tower of Power, which often served as the band's touring horn section in the 1980s, ceased their work with the band in 1994. Horn players Marvin McFadden, Ron Stallings and Rob Sudduth joined the group in their place as "The Sports Section". In 2001, Chris Hayes retired to spend more time with his family after performing on the album
Plan B. Guitarists Stef Burns became Hayes's successor, while James Harrah filled in for Burns occasionally. On April 13, 2009, touring saxophonist Ron Stallings died from
multiple myeloma. In 2001, the News released their first album in seven years,
Plan B, on
Jive Records. It only briefly made the charts, with the lead single, "Let Her Go & Start Over", becoming a minor adult contemporary hit. In December 2004, Huey Lewis and the News recorded their first live album,
Live at 25, at the
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in
Chico, California, commemorating the band's 25th anniversary. In 2008, they recorded the theme song to the action-comedy film
Pineapple Express at the request of
Seth Rogen. The song is played over the end credits of the film and appears on the film's soundtrack album. The band returned to the studio in 2010, recording their first album in nearly a decade. The album, entitled
Soulsville, is a
Stax Records tribute album recorded at the legendary
Ardent Studios. They continued to tour regularly, playing around 70 dates a year, until 2018, when the band halted all touring after it was revealed that Lewis had
Ménière's disease, an inner ear disorder. In June 2025, Lewis remarked that his hearing loss had worsened to the point of total deafness and while a cochlear implant had restored enough hearing for him to hear speech, it was unlikely that he would be able to hear music or sing ever again. =="Ghostbusters" song lawsuit==