“Nearly every song on Sports has a huge hook… there’s no denying that the craftmanship on Sports is pretty infectious,” says All Music Guide about the third album by Huey Lewis & The News. Celebrating its 40th anniversary, Capitol/UMe is reissuing the GRAMMY®-nominated, 7X platinum, chart-topping album on vinyl on September 15, 2023 in two different colors – classic black and olive green. Originally released on September 15, 1983, Sports was a breakthrough for the San Francisco-based band, reaching the #1 spot on Billboard’s Top 200 albums and generating four top ten hits. Sports is available for preorder here: https://HueyLewisTheNews.lnk.to/Sports40.
A cultural touchstone upon its release, Sports not only made a star out of its frontman vocalist Huey Lewis but also thrust the band into the global spotlight. Combining the unlikely concoction of power-pop, blue-eyed soul, doo-wop, and rhythm & blues, the album found itself posited in the Top 40 in numerous counties across the globe, including Norway, Canada, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, the U.K. and, of course, their native U.S.
Launching itself from the get-go with the first single “Heart and Soul” which peaked at #8 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles, Sports was a frequent visitor in the charts. “I Want a New Drug” found the band reaching #6 as did the third and fourth singles “The Heart of Rock and Roll” and “If This Is It” respectively. A fifth single “Walking on a Thin Line” broke the Top 20 at #16 on the Top Rock chart. The album charted in the Top 200 for 160 consecutive weeks, earning the album the remarkable designation of being the second biggest-selling album on Billboard’s end-of-year sales chart, beat only by Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
“In the early 80’s, there was no internet, no alternative scene, and really only one avenue to success; a hit single on CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio). We produced the Sports album ourselves because we wanted to make commercial choices we could live with while we aimed most of the tunes directly at CHR radio. Sports was a collection of singles. We needed a hit single … didn’t know we’d have five of them.”
– Huey Lewis
About The Author
Editor-in-Chief/Entertainment Reporter
I knew early on that I wanted to take my place among the stars. One day, my mother saw me reading The Washington Post at a very young age. Who would have known that it would be the building blocks of my journey? Since that day, I dedicated my life to learn all that is learnable. I read everything from encyclopedias, to books, to dictionaries, to magazines. I’m also an avid consumer of television, with my favorite genre being game shows. If you’ve seen me on Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune, then you know that this interest has served me well!
My unique style of reporting began back in junior high school, when I started to chronicle the events that shaped my life. Whether it was the annual family vacation or the local science fiction convention, I shot numerous pictures and recorded my thoughts so I could truly appreciate the history. During my senior year at Friendly High, I wrote what was to be my first masterpiece, “Advanced Space Academy – A One Week Journey.” I sent the eleven-page article back to the U.S. Space Camp staff. The article was highly praised for being “one of the best written articles in the history of U.S. Space Camp.” From then on, I knew what I wanted to do for rest of my life — to be a reporter.
Since then, I have trained in Broadcast Journalism at Bowie State University (2008) in Bowie, MD earning a B.S. in Communications. I gained experience in news production and editing through field experiences with Bowie Community Media Corporation, Prince George’s Community Television, and Bowie State University Television. I also wrote scripts for a variety of quiz shows for over five years.
As a lifelong movie buff, I now see close to 100 films every year. I took this love of movies to the next step when I became a co-host for Eclipse Magazine TV in the fall of 2005. While at EMTV, I interviewed celebrities, worked red carpets, and attended a wide variety of movie screenings. In January 2009, I took a leap of faith and started my own entertainment news magazine, The Rogers Revue. Shortly afterward, my life-long journey of studying the silver screen and writing about what I learned finally earned me a place in the Washington Area Film Critics Association.
All of this has led me here, giving you the latest entertainment news for the DMV and the entire nation, and I am truly excited for whatever will come next.
