Englewood- Grammy award-winning and Academy award-nominated rockers Huey Lewis and The News perform at bergenPAC! Their first 5 albums all went platinum with hits including, "The Heart of Rock and Roll," "Do You Believe in Love," "Workin' for a Livin'," "I Want a New Drug," "If This Is It," "Stuck with You," "Hip to Be Square" and "Doin' It All for My Baby." In addition, "The Power of Love" and "Back in Time" were the centerpieces of the soundtrack to the hit film "Back to the Future." The band is known for writing simple, light-hearted songs from a working-class perspective and typically appealed to yuppies and baby boomers. Combining a rock (and sometimes, a "blues rock") backing with soul and doowop-influenced harmony vocals, they reached enormous success and had numerous hit songs during the 1980s and early 1990s.

 

In 1972, singer/harmonica player Huey Lewis and keyboardist Sean Hopper joined the Bay Area jazz-funk band Clover. Clover would record several albums in the 1970s, and in the middle of the decade transplanted themselves to England to become part of the UK pub rock scene for a time. Without Lewis (but with Hopper), they eventually became the original backing band for Elvis Costello's first album, My Aim Is True. The band returned to the Bay Area by the end of the 1970s.

 

After getting a singles contract from Phonogram Records in 1978, Lewis united his former bandmate, Hopper, and three of his former rivals (from another Bay Area band) to form a new group, Huey Lewis & The American Express. In 1979 they recorded and released a single, "Exo-Disco" (a disco version of the theme from the film Exodus), that was largely ignored. In 1979 the band moved to Chrysalis Records, and after the credit card organization American Express complained, they changed their name to Huey Lewis & the News in January 1980.

While their first album, a self-titled LP Huey Lewis and The News (1980) was unsuccessful, their second album, Picture This, brought them to the top. The album turned gold, fueled by the breakout success of the hit single "Do You Believe in Love," written by former Clover producer Mutt Lange. Largely because of the single, the album remained on the Billboard charts for 35 weeks and peaked at #13.

 

Their third album, Sports, slowly became a number-one hit in 1984 and multi-platinum success in 1985 thanks to the band's frequent touring and a series of clever, funny videos that received heavy MTV airplay. Four singles from the album would reach the Billboard Top Ten: "Heart and Soul" (U.S. #8), "I Want a New Drug" (U.S. #6), "The Heart of Rock & Roll" (U.S. #6), and "If This Is It" (U.S. #6). Their song "The Power of Love" was a number-one U.S. hit and was featured in the 1985 film Back to the Future, for which they also recorded the theme song "Back In Time."

 

Following the success of "The Power of Love" and Back to the Future, Huey Lewis and The News released Fore! in 1986. Fore! was the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200. The album saw widespread success, spawning two number-one singles, "Jacob's Ladder" and "Stuck with You." Fore! is also known for the Mainstream Rock number-one hit "Hip To Be Square."

 

The band released a couple more albums throughout the '80s, but their success started to dwindle. In 1994, realizing that their chart-topping days were over, the band released a covers album called Four Chords & Several Years Ago, featuring doo-wop and rock songs from the 1950s and '60s. This was the last album released with bassist Mario Cipollina, who left the band after the Four Chords & Several Years Ago tour ended.

 

The band's next album with all new material, Plan B, didn't come until 2001. The album was a collection of songs which the band enjoyed playing and didn't focus on trying to hit the charts; however a single from the album was able to make the Adult Contemporary charts. Since 2001, no album containing new material has been released, but the band continues to tour.

 

bergenPAC

30 North Van Brunt Street

Englewood, NJ 07631

 

About Bergen Performing Arts Center: Known as The John Harms Center for 27 years, this cultural hub in Englewood, has been reborn as Bergen Performing Arts Center or bergenPAC. This 1367- seat theater is a landmark, and in its third season as bergenPAC it remains one of the finest acoustic halls in the United States. The legendary Tony Bennett and Canadian crooner k.d. lang recorded their 2003 Grammy award-winning CD live on bergenPAC's own stage through a broadband fiber-optic connection with Bennett Studios. bergenPAC is the home of a media production system that is unparalleled, upholding its reputation as a venue for outstanding music, dance and theater. As a non-profit corporation, bergenPAC has thrived thanks to the aid and generosity of sponsors, donors and patrons.