Huey Lewis & the News hit #1 with Fore!

First posted 11/26/2020.

Fore! Huey Lewis & the News

Released: August 20, 1986 Peak: 11 US, 8 UK, 13 CN, 3 AU Sales (in millions): 3 US, 0.6 UK, 4.57 world (includes US and UK) Genre: mainstream pop rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Jacob’s Ladder (1/5/87, 1 US, 10 AR, 17 AC, 16 CN, 48 AU) Stuck with You (7/21/86, 1 US, 1 AR, 1 AC, 12 UK, 1 CN, 2 AU) Whole Lotta Lovin’ Doing It All for My Baby (6/29/87, 6 US, 2 AC, 93 UK, 30 CN, 93 AU) Hip to Be Square (10/6/86, 3 US, 1 AR, 20 AC, 41 UK, 14 CN, 17 AU) I Know What I Like (3/23/87, 9 US, 25 AR, 30 AC, 30 CN) I Never Walk Alone Forest for the Trees Naturally Simple As That Total Running Time: 41:40 The Players: Huey Lewis (vocals, harmonica) Mario Cipollina (bass) Johnny Colla (guitar, saxophone, backing vocals) Bill Gibson (drums, percussion, backing vocals) Chris Hayes (guitar, backing vocals) Sean Hopper (keyboards, backing vocals)

Rating: 3.556 out of 5.00 (average of15 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Huey Lewis & the News became superstars with their third album, Sports. On the strength of four top-10 hits, the album reached #1 and multi-platinum status. All Music Guide’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted it was “one of the rare mainstream pop/rock albums where everything works – the songs were catch, the sound was inviting, and it all sounded perfect on the radio.” AMG They’d set the bar high for themselves, but if 1985’s #1 hit “The Power of Love” from the Back to the Future was any indication, it looked like they could reach the same lofty heights a second time around. With their aptly named Fore! album, they did – depending on one’s measuring stick. Like its predecessor, it reached the pinnacle of the album chart. It bested Sports by achieving not four, but five, top-10 hits. None of the singles from Sports got above #6, but three of the singles from Fore! did – including the #1 songs Stuck with You and Jacob’s Ladder. Fore! did, however, fall short of Sports was in sales. While both achieved multi-platinum status, Sports topped ten million while Fore! didn’t reach half that. Part of the problem is that “much of Fore! sounds labored” AMG and the songs just weren’t as catchy. In essence, once the band achieve major fame, they could “no longer sound like a working band,” AMG which was much of what drove their appeal with Sports. The song Hip to Be Square garnered a rather odd second dose of fame more than a decade after its release when the main character in American Psycho discusses the song in terms of how it espouses “the pleasures of conformity.” WK While the song is perfectly inoffensive, it becames disturbing to hear a serial killer commending it for its virtues. Notes: The European, Australian, and Japanese versions added “The Power of Love” to the album.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Huey Lewis & the News AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia

Huey Lewis & the News “Naturally” released on Fore! album

Naturally Huey Lewis & the News

Writer(s): Johnny Colla, Huey Lewis (see lyrics here) Released: August 20, 1986 (album cut) First Charted: -- Peak: 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.41 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Huey Lewis & the News formed in San Francisco in 1979. Their self-titled 1980 debut failed to chart, but 1982’s Picture This reached #13 and went gold, thanks to the top-ten hit “Do You Believe in Love?” Two more singles charted – “Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do” (#36) and “Workin’ for a Livin’” (#41), but this didn’t seem like a band that would go on the have much more success. In fact, they were just getting started. Their Sports album was one of the unexpected hits of 1983. “Heart and Soul,” “I Want a New Drug,” “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” and “If This Is It” were all top-10 hits, aided by the band’s likable presence in fun videos on MTV. The album also had a fifth hit with the top-20 “Walking on a Thin Line.” The blockbuster success of what had become the world’s most successful bar band led to the album reaching #1 and selling seven million copies. They followed up with “The Power of Love,” a #1 song from the 1985 movie Back to the Future. Between that and the monstrous success of Sports, the band were in an unexpected position when recording their next album. As Lewis said, “We had never released a record to any expectations before…There was a certain amount of pressure that was new to us.” UCR They delivered with the 1986 album, Fore!, a three-million seller which also hit #1 on the album chart. They scored two #1 songs (“Stuck with You,” “Jacob’s Ladder”) from the album as well as three more top-10 hits (“Hip to Be Square,” “I Know What I Like,” and “Doing It All for My Baby”). As successful as the singles were, the album also featured some killer non-single cuts such as “Simple As That” and “Naturally.” The latter was an a cappella tune which sounded like it could have been written and recorded fifty years earlier. It was the last song they recorded fo the album. UCR It started as a slower song, but then they made it more up-tempo. It was released as a B-side for “Doing It All for My Baby.” Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Huey Lewis & the News UCR Ultimate Classic Rock (9/22/2021). “How Huey Lewis Overcame Commercial Pressure for Massive ‘Fore!’” by Gary Graff WK Wikipedia page for Fore! Related Links: First posted 12/27/2022.