Whatever your city (or country!), it truly is still that same old backbeat rhythm that really really drives ‘em wild. And we’ve got a popular album reissue coming our way in May with the forthcoming expansion of Huey Lewis & The News’ iconic Sports in honor of its 30th anniversary.
Huey Lewis & The News, comprised partially of one harmonica-playing frontman who’d toured with Thin Lizzy and a group of pub-rockers who’d backed Elvis Costello on his debut album, were the ’80s “bar band made good” to a tee. The Bay Area-based sextet had two modestly successful albums under their belt on Chrysalis Records in 1980 and 1982, the latter of which included Top 10 hit “Do You Believe in Love.”
But Sports was classic, definitive News that appealed to MTV-hungry kids and slick young adults yearning for good times. The LP was self-produced and, barring a few crucial tracks (the Chapman-Chinn-penned “Heart and Soul,” underrated Top 20 hit “Walking on a Thin Line”), self-written. Lewis, guitarist Chris Hayes, bassist Mario Cipollina, drummer Bill Gibson, keyboardist Sean Hopper and saxophonist Johnny Colla were in fine form on the seven-times-platinum album, particularly its four Top 10 hits, “Heart and Soul,” “I Want a New Drug,” “The Heart of Rock & Roll” and “If This is It.”
Bolstered by catchy videos, a hot live act and a crucial extracurricular appearance in 1985 on the soundtrack to Back to the Future, the world was ready to play Sports and catapult Huey Lewis & The News to the ranks of one of the planet’s biggest bands. Three decades, later, the News (minus Cipollina and Hayes) still tours, and will play across America this summer to commemorate three decades of the album that made them stars.
On May 14, Sports will be remastered and expanded by Capitol/UMe as a double-disc set featuring a new booklet with archival photos and new liner notes by journalist Gary Graff. While a 1999 expanded edition appended live cuts and session takes to the original LP, this two-disc set will feature a bonus live disc from the Sports tour featuring all songs from the original album. The press release touts “many” of the tracks as unreleased, leading one to assume the show is sourced from the band’s famous 1985 set at San Francisco’s Kabuki Theater. (Released on VHS at the height of the band’s success, one live cut – “Trouble in Paradise,” off the band’s first album – made it to the original We Are the World album while two others were included on the 1999 reissue.)Huey Lewis & The News, Sports: 30th Anniversary Edition (Capitol/UMe, 2013)
Disc 1: Original LP (released as Chrysalis FV 41412, 1983)
The Heart of Rock & Roll
Heart and Soul
I Want a New Drug
Bad is Bad
Walking on a Thin Line
Finally Found a Home
If This is It
You Crack Me Up
Honky Tonk Blues
Disc 2: Bonus live versions
The Heart of Rock & Roll
Heart and Soul *
I Want a New Drug *
Bad is Bad
Walking on a Thin Line
Finally Found a Home
If This is It *
You Crack Me Up
Honky Tonk Blues
* indicates possibly previously released track. Live versions of these tracks released on Chrysalis/Capitol CD 72435 20669 2 6, 1999
Quelle: SecondDisc
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