sports

Huey Lewis and the News hit it out of the park with the polished professionalism of this pure pop pleasure.  The breakthrough success of 'Picture This' set the group up for their next album.  They produced 'Sports' themselves at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California; The Record Plant in Sausalito, California; and The Automatt, San Francisco, California with Huey Lewis on lead vocals and harmonica; Mario Cipollina on bass; Johnny Colla on guitar, saxophone, and backing vocals; Bill Gibson on drums, percussion, and backing vocals; Chris Hayes on lead guitar and backing vocals; and Sean Hopper on keyboards and backing vocals; with John McFee providing pedal steel guitar on 'Honky Tonk Blues'.    When the album was finished, the band held on to the master tapes because they felt that their label Chrysalis was unable to do their job while the label was going through a reorganization.  During the interim, they played the new songs in small clubs.  

'Sports' became a monster hit, going to number forty in Sweden, twenty-three in the UK, twenty-two in Australia, nineteen in New Zealand, six in Norway, three in Canada, and number one in the US, where it sold over seven million copies.  Lewis considers:   "Back in the day you wanted your albums to have a theme, and 'Sports'' theme was really a collection of singles.  It was really a record for its time. In the 80's, the way radio was programmed, if you didn't have a hit record you weren't going to be able to make any more records. That was it, period. So our priority was to come up with hit singles. Every tune we aimed for radio 'cause we didn't know which one was going to be a hit. We just knew we needed a frickin' hit, period. And fortunately we got 'em ... They hold up, I would like to think, for two reasons. Number one, the song needs to be true. It can be about war, it can be about love, it doesn’t matter, as long as it rings true. The other thing musically is [it has] none of the ’80s [quirks]. Our stuff was anachronistic even then. Our thing is the old American pop song formula: you start in fours or 8 or 16 or 32, there’s an intro then the verse, the chorus, the verse, the chorus, the bridge, the chorus, and out. That’s been the pop song formula for American popular music since it began. Suddenly in the ’90s that wasn’t the formula anymore."







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"Heart and Soul"  was the leadoff single, going to sixty-one in the UK, forty-one in the Netherlands and New Zealand, thirty-nine in Germany, twenty-five in Australia, eight on the US pop chart, and number one on the US mainstream rock tracks chart.  





"I Want a New Drug"   hit twenty-seven in Australia, Germany, and Switzerland; ten in New Zealand; seven  on the US mainstream rock tracks chart; six on the US pop chart; and number one on the US dance chart.  The song was involved in a lawsuit in which Ray Parker, Jr. was accused of plagerizing the song in his 'Ghostbusters'.  The case was settled out of court.  





"The Heart of Rock & Roll"  beat its way to number seventy-eight in the UK, seventy-one in Germany, fifty-eight in Australia, twenty-one in New Zealand, six on the US pop chart, and number five on the US mainstream rock tracks chart.  



"If This Is It"  went to thirty-nine in the UK, thirty-seven in New Zealand, twenty in Australia, nineteen  on the US mainstream rock tracks chart, six on the US pop chart, and number five on the US dance chart.  





"Walking on a Thin Line"   made it to number seventy in Australia, eighteen on the US pop chart, and sixteen on the US mainstream rock tracks chart.  





"Bad Is Bad"  











'Sports'

full album:


1. "The Heart of Rock & Roll"  (Johnny Colla, Huey Lewis) 5:03
2. "Heart and Soul" (Mike Chapman, Nicky Chinn) 4:13
3. "Bad Is Bad" (Alex Call, John Ciambotti, Sean Hopper, H. Lewis, John McFee, Michael Schriener) 3:48
4. "I Want a New Drug"  (Chris Hayes, H. Lewis) 4:46
5. "Walking on a Thin Line"  (Andre Pessis, Kevin Wells) 5:11
6. "Finally Found a Home"   (B. Brown, C. Hayes, H. Lewis) 3:43
7. "If This Is It"  (J. Colla, H. Lewis) 3:54
8. "You Crack Me Up"  (Mario Cipollina, H. Lewis)  3:42
9. "Honky Tonk Blues"   (Hank Williams) 3:26