9 Earworms, No Filler: Revisiting Huey Lewis & The News' Sports

I’ve been trying to think of a good way to describe Huey Lewis & the News, and the most accurate analogy I can make comes from the News’ home base in The Bay. Think of the TV show “Full House”, and imagine The Rippers fronted by Bob Saget’s Danny Tanner instead of John Stamos’s Uncle Jesse. They fit the classic bar band image, and Huey was an everyguy rocker who didn’t take himself anywhere near as seriously as Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp. Am I off-base here?

There was a point in the mid Eighties when Huey Lewis & the News was the biggest American group out. Number One singles, American Music Awards, Grammy nominations galore. Nothing about their story makes sense through a 2026 lens, but back in 1983-84? Sports was right up there next to Thriller, Purple Rain, Born in the U.S.A and all the tentpole albums you know and love. 

Huey and his crew achieved that success with a winning formula of no-nonsense pop/rock. The nine songs on Sports are all earworms. They sound great coming out of radio speakers. They sound great coming out of jukeboxes. And Huey’s voice, soulful and throaty, manages to be both unique and familiar. Songs like the propulsive dance jam “Heart & Soul” and the suggestive “I Want A New Drug” practically announce themselves as hits as soon as you put the needle on the groove-even though the band was still building towards “star” status as they were recording this album. Sports-a commercial breakthrough for the act-was their third time at bat. How’s that for audience development?

You can’t even be mad at the moments on Sports that might come across a little hokey. I’ve always found “The Heart of Rock & Roll” to be a little too on the nose, but Huey’s just so damn earnest and likable it’s hard to resist. And that earnestness (also evident on standout slow jam “If This Is It” is tempered by the fact that Huey sounds like a grown man who’s seen some shit. That sensibility-in addition to the pinpoint harmonies of The News-is how he’s also able to pull off more serious tunes like “Walking on a Thin Line," one of several hits of that era concerned with the PTSD suffered by Vietnam vets.

One topical tune aside, Sports doesn’t concern itself with much beyond being agreeable and appealing. And that is perfectly fine. Sometimes you don’t need anything more than that. Huey Lewis & the News cemented their stardom not by making big artistic statements, but by writing (or choosing) and singing songs that were made for playing loud and feeling good.