Sports isn’t fancy. It’s rock music played tightly and with enthusiasm by the band, recorded cleanly. The songs are first-listen friendly and held up after the set became a monster hit, spending more than a year all over Top 40 and rock radio. It ultimately ranks as one of the great pop-rock band albums of the 80s. Huey Lewis and The News earned themselves lots of hits singles, with a couple really good album tracks. It is bar band rock and roll with a shine, as they made a radio-ready album with really great harmonies, and big, fat sugar smack hooks in the songs that are easy to like really quickly. And people did. But here is the hard truth: His two greatest radio songs were not on this record. One came right before and one right after. We discuss.
Released in September 1983, Sports made a slow climb up the charts throughout late 1983 and early 1984. This is a record that predated the explosion of Purple Rain-era Prince, and Bruce Springsteen’s Born in The USA, and John Mellencamp’s Scarecrow album. It was before Bryan Adams and Reckless. It was an influential part of the hit radio transition from the Cars-y new wave of the early part of the decade, to the heartland rock that had an impact on music and radio in the mid-80s. We talk about the sound, the unassuming innovation that pushed other artists, and the videos that were really a key part of the band’s success.
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