Anyone else think Huey Lewis and The News was nothing more than a bar band?

...and from what I've seen, I believe 'em.


wasn't "the News" the backing band on the 1st Elvis Costello albumn?

 

Bar bands don’t sell 10’s of millions of records.

 

I think he was way more than that!!

 

I think they were great. The band has always been tight. Huey is losing his vocal chops though. I saw them in the mid 80s and again last year. Huey had to "edit" a lot of the vocals to go lower.... kinda sad to watch. But the band was still killing it.

They have always been a throwback band. Even when they were new, they sounded like an old soul band. But, if you listen to the lyrics, that was kind of their shtick. They often lamented that music was losing its soul. They even did a throwback covers album.

I would love to see a tight horn band with a charismatic front man in a bar. So, if they're a bar band, take me to that bar!

 

Large venues and stadiums usually sell beer, right? So very, very good bar band?

 

They were playing the bar next to the one we were playing in Colorado Springs and invited our lighting guy to set in with them on harp. Down to earth and tight band. They were big on mtv back in the day. They had a niche.

 

They were a great bar band that had a very smart manager!

 

Hadn't seen this one. Just watched it. Good stuff.

 

They never played Mustang Sally, so not a very popular bar band, I'd guess.

 

Nope.

 

John McFee (guitar), John Ciambotti (bass), Sean Hopper (keys) and Mickey Shine (drums) were the members of Clover that played on Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True. Of those four, only Hopper joined The News.

 

Great band, great music, great musicians. Best live rendition of The Star Spangled Banner I ever heard. Huey also seems to be a very genuine guy - has gone out of his way to keep the band together. I met him a few years ago at a meet and greet a few years ago before a concert. He went out of his way to speak with everyone - didn't just phone it in.

 

I don’t see an awful lot of bar bands writing great original songs that play that well together, with top-notch horn parts and background vocals done in real-time with no help from a Mac. Not many could set their instruments down and do it acapella, either. I’m either going to the wrong bars or there’s a disconnect here as to what a bar band is.

Standards were higher back when Huey got started and they were still clearly ahead of everybody else back then, too.

 

Yeah, but what a bar band.

 

i like 'em.

 

Coincidences are so interesting. I haven’t put my iPod in my car for months, then yesterday I decided to. Took a short time to charge and the first album I played was Huey Lewis, then I see this thread.​

At the least they’re a great bar band, but in my opinion they are much more.​

 

Huey scored a perfect 800 on the math part of his SAT. That alone makes him a Righteous Dude.