Huey Lewis & The News - FORE!

1. "Jacob's Ladder" (Bruce Hornsby, John Hornsby) – 3:33
2. "Stuck with You" (Hayes, Lewis) – 4:29
3. "Whole Lotta Lovin'" (Colla, Lewis) – 3:30
4. "Doin' It (All For My Baby)" (Cody, Duke) – 3:39
5. "Hip to Be Square" (Gibson, Hopper, Lewis) – 4:05
6. "I Know What I Like" (Hayes, Lewis) – 3:59
7. "I Never Walk Alone" (Nielsen) – 3:44
8. "Forest for the Trees" (Fletcher, Gibson, Lewis, Loggins) – 3:28
9. "Naturally" (Colla, Lewis) – 2:52
10. "Simple as That" (Biner, Castillo, Kupka) – 4:27
The European and Japanese version had "The Power of Love" (from Back to the Future) as track 8, pushing the other three tracks down a notch in sequence.

While Huey and the band had released two albums between 1980 and 1982, it wasn't until 1983 that they had a huge note of attention with the release of Sports. The singles and the videos kept coming through 1984. Sports went 7x platinum, and back then, that was fantastic! It's since received Diamond status. They had a slew of Top 10 hits, and their first #1 with that album. But it wasn't the apex. It was the warm up, the pre-show, if you will.

While riding the wave of "The Power of Love" and "Back In Time" from the Back To The Future movie in 1985, the next year saw the parade of FORE!. It was truly packed with hits, yet it only garnered 3 million in sales. This tragedy in pop music was odd to me. A great band, who played and wrote their music, along with other great songwriters like Kenny Loggins and Bruce Hornsby, and Reed Nielsen of Nielsen/Pearson fame. Yet despite the 3 million sales mark (which is still respectable), the album still garnered three #1 hits ("Stuck With You", "Hip To Be Square", and "Jacob's Ladder"), and a bunch of top 10 hits. Huey and the News were still going strong.

A very cute and funny take on Frankenstein's monster was the muse for the "Doin' It All For My Baby", and they did quite well. Each character was perfectly matched to the band member playing it. A 3-hour tour trapped on an island was the setting for the big hit of "Stuck With You". (Imagine a video actually going with the story of the song?! GO FIGURE!) "Hip To Be Square" proved just that, with close up camera shots of the band while they simply performed the song. Snake eye camera shots on Huey's microphone, or on the bass player's hand, were the norm.

Huey and the News went on to record four more studio albums through 2001, which is a bit sparse for most fan's taste.

I much prefer FORE! over Sports. Every single song is so solid, catchy, and flows perfectly into the next. It was truly the height of their creativity and talent. That's not to dismiss Small World, Hard At Play, or Plan B or their album of old 50's covers Four Chords and Several Years Ago (which is SO spot on with their style and attitude).

FORE! just stands out as one of the truly great, and dare I say it PERFECT pop/rock albums of the 80's, and greatly overlooked as such.

* * * Single Pick Of The Day: "Naturally". Nothing fancy, just pure vocal talent, showcasing their talent in an a capella song. No auto-tune or vocoders here!!!! * * *
[Edited 12/15/09 20:29pm]

Nice pick. Good solid band.


I always liked this tune from that record...



...Jacob's Ladder



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