1983 Huey Lewis and the News – Walking On A Thin Line
Hugh Anthony Cregg III was born in New York City and grew up near San Francisco. He became an accomplished harmonica player and also sang with the band Slippery Elm in the late sixties.
In 1971, he joined the band Clover and Hugh began using the name Hughie Louis. The band recorded a pair of albums in England with producer Mutt Lange, but they were unsuccessful. The albums credited the singer as Huey Louis but showed the name H. Cregg on songwriting credits.
In 1978, Bluesy Huey Lewis played harmonica on a Thin Lizzie album, after which he formed Huey Lewis and The American Express with some musicians from Clover and other local groups. The band released a disco version of Exodus released as Exodisco using the name American Express. Bob Brown became the group’s manager, and he encouraged them to change their name to Huey Lewis and the News to avoid potential problems with the credit card company.
In late 1980, the band released their first album, Huey Lewis and The News. While sales were a disappointment, their video for their lead single, Some of My Lies Are True (Sooner Or Later), got some airplay on MTV when the cable channel premiered the next year.
Their second album produced the top-ten single Do You Believe In Love and three singles that simply came and went. It was their third album in 1983 that turned the group into international superstars. Sports spawned four consecutive top ten singles: Heart and Soul, I Want A New Drug, The Heart Of Rock And Roll, and If This Is It.
Perhaps they went a single too far, or maybe it was the unhappy subject matter of the next release, but their fifth single from the album did not fare as well as the first four singles. Walking On A Thin Line was about the challenges and struggles of Vietnam era soldiers. The single only reached #18 on the Hot 100 in late 1984.
Their next single came from the soundtrack of Back To The Future. The Power Of Love became the group’s first #1 record. The top forty singles kept coming through 1991. After that, the group only found success on the Adult Contemporary chart, racking up four top ten singles and a pair of records that peaked somewhere in the twenties.
At least four of the original members of the group continued to tour with a few replacements for those who left the group over the years. Touring was halted in 2018 when Huey developed hearing loss from Ménière’s disease.
The band released an album of new tracks in 2020, all of which were recorded before Huey’s hearing loss.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Lewis_and_the_News
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Lewis_and_the_News_discography
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