Huey Lewis & The News: Sports CD Track Listing

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Huey Lewis & The News Sports (1983)
Originally Released 1983\nCD Edition Released 1985 ??\nGold MFSL CD Edition Released ????\nRemastered + Expanded CD Edition Released June 29, 1999\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Picture This found Huey Lewis & the News developing a signature sound, but they truly came into their own on their third album, Sports. It's true that the record holds together better than its predecessors because it has a clear, professional production, but the real key is the songs. Where their previous albums were cluttered with generic filler, nearly every song on Sports has a huge hook. And even if the News aren't bothered by breaking new ground, there's no denying that the craftmanship on Sports is pretty infectious. There's a reason why well over half of the album ("Heart of Rock & Roll," "Heart and Soul," "I Want a New Drug," "Walking on a Thin Line," "If This Is It") were huge American hit singles -- they have instantly memorable hooks, driven home with economical precision by a tight bar band, who are given just enough polish to make them sound like superstars. And that's just what Sports made them. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nThe rose-colored illusion has been shattered..., September 7, 2003 \nReviewer: Zagnorch (Terra, Sol System) \nGrowin' up in the 80s, I found the pop-chart-toppin' works of Huey Lewis and the News some of the most enjoyable tracks ever broadcast over the FM airwaves. The man and his boys became one of my fave artists, right up there with Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Mike & the Mechanics, and (of course) Genesis. I collected all of the band's studio works on cassette, from their self-titled debut album all the way through to `Hard at Play', as well as the `Back to the Future' soundtrack. But, as the 90s got into full swing, I eventually got rid of all my cassettes, and rebuilt my music collection on CD. While I managed to collect all of my fave Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Mike & the Mechanics, and Genesis albums on digital disc, for some reason I held off on resuming my library of HL&N cuts. \n\nFast-forward several years to the modern day. In a fit of nostalgic glee, I snap up a copy of `Sports', throw `er in my player, and fire `er up. After the disc plays all the way through, I find myself bummed by how lame the music is (except for "Heart and Soul", which is still kinda kickin'). Looks like Mr. Cragg & his journalists really meant it when they sang, "Sometimes, Bad is Bad"! Sheesh, no wonder I was such a loser in middle school; with the kinda taste in music I had, it's a miracle I had any friends at all back then! Oh yeah, I forgot: I DIDN'T have any friends at all back then... \n\nNeedless to say, I'm a little depressed now. I'm gonna go lie down `til this funk blows over. Should only take about a week or two... \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review (Remastered CD Edition)\n5 stars for a great album; one star for a POOR re-master., April 18, 2005 \nReviewer: Francis "80's Music Man" (United States) \nThis is one of my all-time favorite albums; it certainly brings back lots of memories of 1984. My favorite track would have to be "The Heart of Rock and Roll," followed closely by "I Want a New Drug" and "If This is It," which, coincidentally, were the three biggest singles. \n\nHowever, this "re-mastered" edition, which was released in 1999, is very, very poor. I purchased this edition in the summer of 2003, at which time I was taking an internship in audio engineering. This "24-bit re-master" is an engineer's worst nightmare. \n\nFor starters, it does NOT sound like it was mastered from the original tapes at 24 bits. It sounds like it was mastered from a second-generation tape. Secondly, the volume is quite low compared to other 20- and- 24-bit re-masters I've heard. And thirdly, the engineer who re-mastered this disc has taken some pretty tasteless liberties with the bass and treble. \n\nOn most of the tracks, there is too much low end bass, which makes them sound muddy and overbearing. There is also a lack of treble (high-end), making this an extremely poorly-balanced re-master. The best example of this is track #4, "I Want a New Drug." The bass drum pounds and pounds away, ready to break my car stereo speakers at any given moment. The high-end is very muddy as well. And the following track, "Walking On a Thin Line," opens with a synthesizer bassline that is overbearing in its intensity and muddy in its clarity. \n\nAt first, I thought that this was intentional, but after downloading mp3s of each track, presumably ripped from the original CD release, I can safely say that this release was severely botched up. The mp3s, particularly "I Want a New Drug," sound much more balanced out and tighter. \n\nAgain, a great album, but a very poor re-master. To think that this edition was intended to replace the original CD release is unthinkable. \n\nAlso, Chrysalis/Capitol Records missed an opportunity to include the extended 12" remix of "I Want a New Drug," as well as the very rare 12" remix of the first single, "Heart and Soul." I would have listened to those more than once, which is more than I can say for the existing bonus tracks, which consist of alternate session takes for "The Heart of Rock and Roll" and "Walking on a Thin Line," respectively, as well as live, concert versions of "If This is It," "Heart and Soul," and "I Want a New Drug." \n\nIt's a shame that the album's 20th anniversary has come and gone; they should have made an effort to release a better-sounding edition. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review (Remastered CD Edition)\nExcellent! A classic gets the treatment it deserves!, July 5, 2001\nReviewer: A music fan\nThere are three staple albums in the Huey Lewis & The News canon--SPORTS, FORE and HARD AT PLAY (and hopefully their latest, PLAN B, will join them ((please don't be another SMALLWORLD!)))-- but SPORTS, as far as I know, is the only one of their albums to be given the *remastered & expanded* treatment, and deservedly so. It was their first smash-hit and one of the defining musical works of the 1980s. All I can say is wow! Sounds even better than before with the addition of bonus live tracks and session recordings that let you feel like you were sitting in with the band during it's early stages. I hope that FORE and HARD AT PLAY will be next in line and I've got my fingers crossed for PLAN B--Come on, Huey, don't leave us hanging for another ten years!\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review (Remastered CD Edition)\nSports Scores, April 27, 2001\nReviewer: Thomas Magnum (NJ, USA) \nHuey Lewis & The News enjoyed a moderate hit with their previous album, Picture This. From that album, no one could have predicted what a major smash hit their follow up, Sports would be. The album spawned four top ten hits, went to number one, spent almost a year in the top ten and over three years in the top 200. Part of the band's appeal lays in the fact that they seem like just an average bunch of guys who could live in your neighborhood or play on your local softball team. The songs on Sports are straight ahead, no nonsense songs that full of picture perfect harmonies and appealing hooks. "The Heart of Rock 'N' Roll" opens up the album and sets the tone with its roll call of towns and its catchy chorus. "Heart & Soul" is a jumping song with it's pounding guitars and punchy lyrics. "Bad Is Bad" shows off the band's slick harmonies in a southern fried soul style song. "I Want A New Drug" maybe the band's most recognizable song and is just about as perfect a pop song as you can record. "Walking On A Thin Line" tackles the serious subject of Vietnam Vets dealing with coming home from the war, but does so in a manner that is not self righteous or aggrandizing. "Finally Found A Home" has a swift and pulsating pace while "If This Is It" is a bright and sunny track remiscant of The Beach Boys. "You Crack Me Up" is a frenzied number and "Honky Tonk Blues" is a cover of a Hank Williams song in which the band lets loose. The additional tracks are all fine, but the original nine tracks that made up Sports stand out on their own. The album has sold over ten million copies and is one the finest albums that was released in the 80's.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review (Remastered CD Edition)\nGreat CD, but..., February 7, 2001\nReviewer: "astrosmith" (Houston, TX USA) \nI absolutely loved Huey Lewis and the News when they came out in 1983/84, and they are the main reason I decided to learn to play saxophone in band. I had the tape of Sports and listened to it for hours on end. Anyway, recently I tried to find my tape and it was gone, so I decided to get the CD. It was as good now as it was back then.\nI liked the extra tracks on this CD, esp. the live ones, but the extra "Heart of Rock and Roll" track was AWFUL! It sounds like Huey had a cold that day, and there was no saxophone, just Huey going "duh-duh, duh-duh", no harmonica, etc. Who in the heck thought that it would be a good idea to include this track on the CD? Couldn't they have gotten their hands on a good live track? Oh well, the live cut of "If This Is It" makes up for it some...\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review (Remastered CD Edition)\nsports, March 15, 2000\nReviewer: "kidcurry" (montana) \nAfter having worn out an album and a cassette, I eagerly looked forward to replacing some of my favorite music with a medium with a longer usable life. When the CD finally arrived I hurried to my CD player to listen to a "clean-clear-digital" copy of the best rock and roll ever. Imagine my disappointment as I listened to "The Heart of Rock and Roll." How pathetic! The vocals were severely out of tune, the beat did not blend with the music. It was like listening to a very bad amateur trying to squawk one of the worst versions of that song I have ever heard. Who ever digitally remastered this song, ought to be digitally eliminated. Hanging is too good for them. Heuy Lewis fans rise up! Sing your indignation to the heavens. We have been betrayed.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review (Remastered CD Edition)\nI guess you can't go back..., February 4, 2000\nReviewer: Evan Streb (ohio) \nOkay maybe this was cool back in the day when I was like four, but I just listened to it today and it's so awful! All the dated synths and monotonous drum machines and the "dwee-doos" of "I Want A New Drug", not to mention Mr Lewis' annoying vocal style. Even the #1 hit "Heart of Rock n Roll" is one of the worst songs about rock celebrating itself. It sounds just like Michael Jackson and Phil Collins, which is not a good thing.\n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nJeffrey Norman, Engineer\nJim Gaines, Engineer\nHuey Lewis & The News, Producer\n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel: Huey Lewis (vocals, harmonica); Johnny Colla (vocals, guitar, saxophone); Chris Hayes (vocals, guitar); Sean Hopper (vocals, keyboards); Bill Gibson (vocals, drums, percussion); John McFee (pedal steel guitar); Mario Cipollina (bass).\n\nRecorded at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California and The Plant Studios, Sausalito, California.\n\nAfter two mildly successful, vaguely new-wave albums, Bay Area bar band Huey Lewis and the News (several of whose members had backed Elvis Costello on MY AIM IS TRUE) hooked up with mega-selling producer Mike Chapman and released 1983's SPORTS. The album dominated both AM and FM radio throughout 1984, aligning it with THRILLER, PURPLE RAIN, SHE'S SO UNUSUAL, and Madonna's early singles as definitive pop music of its era.\n\nSPORTS is genial frat-boy rock at its finest. Singles "The Heart of Rock and Roll," "Heart and Soul," "I Want a New Drug," and "If This is It" comprise half of the album, and these songs have stood up to repeated listens. Hearing SPORTS today, the album still sounds surprisingly fresh, all the more remarkable when one considers how poorly other hits of the day have fared.\n\nHalf.com Album Credits (Remastered + Expanded CD Edition)\nJim Gaines, Engineer\n\nAlbum Notes\nHuey Lewis & The News: Huey Lewis (vocals, harmonica); Johnny Colla (guitar, saxophone, background vocals); Chris Hayes (guitar, background vocals); Sean Hopper (keyboards, background vocals); Mario Cipollina (bass); Bill Gibson (drums, percussion, background vocals).\n\nAdditional personnel: John McFee (pedal steel guitar).\n\nProducer: Huey Lewis & The News.\n\nReissue producer: Kevin Flaherty.\n\nRecorded at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California; The Plant Studios, Sausalito, California; live in San Francisco, California on February 21, 1985; live on TV Rock Palace, Los Angeles, California on January 15, 1984.\n\nDigitally remastered using 20-bit technology by Bob Norberg (Capitol Mastering).\n\nThis is part of EMI's Expanded Editions series.\n\nAfter two mildly successful, vaguely new-wave albums, Bay Area bar band Huey Lewis and the News (several of whose members had backed Elvis Costello on MY AIM IS TRUE) hooked up with mega-selling producer Mike Chapman and released 1983's SPORTS. The album dominated both AM and FM radio throughout 1984, aligning it with THRILLER, PURPLE RAIN, SHE'S SO UNUSUAL, and Madonna's early singles as definitive pop music of its era.\n\nSPORTS is genial frat-boy rock at its finest. Singles "The Heart of Rock and Roll," "Heart and Soul," "I Want a New Drug," and "If This is It" comprise half of the album, and these songs have stood up to repeated listens. Hearing SPORTS today, the album still sounds surprisingly fresh, all the more remarkable when one considers how poorly other hits of the day have fared. This reissue contains two demos and three live tracks.
This rock cd contains 9 tracks and runs 37min 43sec.
Freedb: 7408d509
Buy: from Amazon.com

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