The mere mention of Pop music from the 1980s seems to automatically raise the tiny hairs on the back of people's neck.
While new idioms like Punk (I can't play but I'm angry so fuck off) and New Wave (I can play a little as long as I don't get hair mousse on my synthesizer) were trying to kill Disco (I cant play but my cousin has a drum machine we could use), standard rock and roll fare was in a tenuous state. With rock groups like Journey, ZZ Top, and Foreigner crafting their songs and performances for large arena rock concerts, the 4 minute pop tune seemed headed for extinction.
Enter Huey Lewis and the News, a hit machine of well polished vocal pop-rock tunes. They looked good AND they could play while carrying the craft of the pop single though most of the 80s single-handed.
If you were in a cover band playing clubs, wedding receptions, or corporate parties in the 80s, you could appreciate it when a rock and roll band - from Marin County, no less! - could produce an average of three top ten hits per album; it was like someone else doing your homework for you. All you had to do was spend a night in the garage with your boys learning that latest hit, and if you got it close, you'd be the hit of the event and hopefully be invited to the after-party (where, years later, we realized we never should have gone). Let's face it; these boys kept us all working for a quite a while. Not rocket science (Rush) or pretending to like caviar (Styx, Kansas), just catchy pop tunes accessible by performer and listener alike. Perfect.
I will always make the argument that Huey Lewis and The News was one of the best rock and roll groups that the Bay Area has ever produced (100 million copies of their album "Sports" can't be denied), and it all started with "Do You Believe In Love".
Thanks for all that heavy lifting, boys.
KO
