Huey Lewis and the News released their first album entitled Huey Lewis and the News in 1980. Two years later the band became a household name when they released their second album entitled Picture This. The album yielded the top 10 single “Do You Believe In Love.” With the MTV era beginning to infiltrate homes across America, the band found their song “Working For A Living” from Picture This in heavy rotation on the channel. Four singles were released off the album, making the record a huge success story. The band had no idea of the popularity they were about to achieve on their next record.
At the end of the summer of 1983, Huey Lewis and the News released their soon-to-be legendary album entitled Sports. The album yielded five singles. Four of those singles would reach the Billboard top 10. The first single released from the album entitled “Heart and Soul” went all the way to number one on the U.S. mainstream rock charts. 1984 was an incredible year for music. Some of the biggest albums of the 1980s were released that year including Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A, Purple Rain by Prince, Van Halen’s 1984 and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Couldn’t Stand The Weather.
Huey Lewis and the News followed up the Sports album with two songs on The Back To The Future soundtrack. One of those songs hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The song “Power of Love” became one of the biggest-selling songs the band ever released. On a soundtrack album that also featured Eric Clapton, Lindsey Buckingham and Etta James, it was the material that Huey Lewis and the News contributed that proved to be most successful.
The band’s full length follow up album to Sports was released in 1986 entitled Fore! was released in 1986. Once again, Huey Lewis and the News found tremendous success on the music charts with six singles released from the album. Tow of the singles entitled “Stuck With You,” and “Jacob’s Ladder,” hit number one on the United States Billboard Hot 100 pop music charts.
In 1988, the band released the album Small World. The album showcased a more mature sound for the band. The album still did well from a commercial standpoint and yielded a top 10 hit with the song “Perfect World.” However, the band’s domination of the music charts would soon come to an end.
Huey Lewis and the News only released two more studio albums of original material after the release of Small World. In 1991 the band released Hard at Play. Ten years later they released the album Plan B.
On many of our lists we usually focus on a combination of the hits and deep tracks. However, Huey Lewis and the News had too many top 10 hits in the 1980s that we could not ignore. Consequently, this Top 10 Huey Lewis and the News songs list is loaded with hits. If you were around back then and conscious, you know them all. If not, we hope this Huey Lewis and the News songs list turns you on to some great pop tunes when bands actually played their instruments and singers recorded vocals without any of that autotune nonsense. This is the real deal!
# 10 – Working For A Living
We open our Top 10 Huey Lewis and the News Songs list with the great MTV hit Working For A Living. The song was released on the band’s second album Picture This. It was the fourth single released from the album. One can hear elements of the new wave scene in the arrangement of the song.
# 9 – Perfect World
The song “Perfect World” was the lead single from the band’s Small World album. The record was released in 1988. The song hit number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. I always this was a really underrated Huely Lewis album. The production was amazing, the songs were written really well, and the band was on fire. Just because it wasnt fueled by big-time hits like the previous albums had been, did not mean that it was any less of a record. This is a good one.
# 8 – Hip To Be Square
The great Huey Lewis and the News song “Hip To Be Square.” was released on the Fore! album in 1986. Once again the band found themselves with a top 10 hit as “Hip To Be Square” reached the number three position on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also hit number one on the US Billboard Mainstream rock charts.
# 7 – Doing It All For My Baby
What many fans loved about Huey Lewis and the News was their ability to produce songs that defined some of the same characteristics that the great pop records of the 1950s and 1960s presented. Somewhere in between The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Platters was the sound of Huey Lewis and the News. Their 1987 hit “Doing It All For My Baby” defines just what we are talking about.
# 6 – Do You Believe In Love
The famous Huey Lewis and the News song “Do You Believe In Love” was the band’s first big hit. Written by Robert (Mutt) Lange, it reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was released on the band’s second album, Picture This.
# 5 – Heart and Soul
“Heart and Soul” was the first single released from the Sports album in 1983. It was the first of four singles to reach the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100 charts and also hit number one on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts. Thta pulsating drum and bass beat that represented the sound of a beating heart was just so brilliant.
# 4 – Stuck With You
The great track “Stuck With You” was released on the album Fore! It was issued as the first single from the album. The song was a smash hit for the band, spending three weeks in the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100. This was definitely a fan-favorite video from a band that made so many great ones in the 1980s.
# 3 – I Want A New Drug
As far as groove goes, this one wins the award in that category. The excellent track “I Want A New Drug” was released on the Sports album. The song hit number six on the Billboard Hot 100. It is one of only two songs that the band released that went Gold in the United States. The other was the song “Power Of Love” from the Back To The Future Soundtrack.
# 2 – If This Is It
Another great Huey Lewis and the News video accompanied the band’s fourth single from the Sports album. We have placed this one in the number two spot because the hook is just simply to die for. It is a fabulous Huey Lewis and The News song that defined their great summer sound.
# 1 – The Power Of Love
1985 was a good year for Mr. Huey Lewis. Not only did he and his band archive their first number-one singles, but Huey Lewis got to play a role in the Back To The Future film. The song “Power of Love” was featured in the movie. Its inclusion in the film undoubtedly helped the song hit number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 pop songs and Hot 100 Mainstream rock tracks.
With so many hits and great album tracks, it was tough to choose a Huey Lewis and The News song for the number-one spot. What probably won us over on this song is the tune’s fabulous bridge. If we were teaching a course on how to write a bridge in a pop song, the bridge in “The Power Of Love” would serve as a great example. Everything about “The Power of Love,” was perfect. The “Power of Love” had a great intro, strong verse, killer hook, fabulous bridge, perfect guitar solo, and a slamming lead vocal. It pretty much sums up most of the band’s songs, too.