Huey Lewis And The News’ Hit-Packed ‘Sports’ For 40th Anniversary Vinyl Editions

Huey Lewis and the News’ staging-post 1983 album Sports – which contained two Grammy-winning songs, four Top Ten US hits, and went seven-times-platinum in America – will be released in special anniversary vinyl editions on September 15, exactly 40 years to the day since its first appearance.

Capitol/UMe will offer both black and olive green vinyl versions of the album that made the group a worldwide success and Lewis one of the most familiar and popular pop frontmen of his day. As it continued to offer up one major hit after another, Sports spent a week at No.1 on the Billboard album chart in June 1984 and took the San Francisco group’s unique blend of power-pop, blue-eyed soul, doo-wop, and rhythm & blues around the world.

The first hit from the LP was the driving “Heart and Soul,” which reached No.8 on the Hot 100 and went on to win a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal by a Group. “I Want a New Drug” then peaked at No.6 as did the third and fourth singles “The Heart of Rock and Roll” (another Grammy winner, as Record of the Year) and “If This Is It.”

A fifth single, “Walking on a Thin Line,” was a Top 20 hit on both the Hot 100 and the Top Rock Tracks chart, as the album racked up 160 consecutive weeks on the bestsellers. Sports became the second biggest-selling album in the US of 1984, outdone only by Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Says Lewis: “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.”

Pre-order the vinyl editions of Sports, which are released on September 15.