News

If you miss the sound of Huey Lewis and The News – and who doesn’t, really? – the band will reissue on CD their last two albums before last year’s Weather.

2001’s Plan B and 2010’s Soulsville were, before Weather, the entirety of the band’s 21st century studio output after a blockbuster run through most of the ’80s and a measure of success in the early ’90s. Plan B marked the group’s first album of original studio material in a decade – their last full album, 1994’s Four Chords and Seven Years Ago, was all covers – but the spark was still there. Songwriter Mike Duke, who’d co-written their smash “Doing It All for My Baby,” contributed a sweet R&B-rocker called “Let Her Go and Start Over” that reached the Top 40 of Billboard‘s adult contemporary chart. Songs like “We’re Not Here for a Long Time (We’re Here for a Good Time)” and “So Little Kindness” (first recorded for a greatest hits record in 1996), were fan favorites as well as latter-day concert staples. Plan B also marked the end of an era for The News: the last album recorded with longtime guitarist/songwriter Chris Hayes. (Hayes’ writing credits appear on several of Weather‘s tracks.)

Outside of constant touring and a greatest hits collection that cracked the upper half of the Billboard 200 in 2006, Huey Lewis and The News were largely quiet for the rest of the ’00s. (A notable exception: the end-credits song to the Judd Apatow-produced stoner comedy Pineapple Express (2008), which sent up their imperial sound.) The group finally emerged with a new album in 2010: Soulsville, an easygoing set of covers from the Stax Records songbook. (“The public isn’t clamoring for new Huey Lewis and The News material,” the frontman admitted in an interview.) But there was plenty of street cred to go around: the group recorded at Memphis’ legendary Ardent Studios alongside one of the label’s original engineers, Jim Gaines (who’d been at the desk for the band’s blockbusters Sports and Fore!). Critics dug the inspired choices beyond notable hits like “Cry to Me” and “Respect Yourself,” and the album managed to eke out a Top 20 performance on Billboard‘s R&B albums chart.

Of course, last year’s Weather serves as an uncertain coda to the band’s incredible work, as Lewis’ ongoing battle with Meniere’s disease has affected his hearing (and the COVID-19 pandemic has additionally kept road warriors like them offstage). But those whose love of all things Huey was sparked with that new album have some more flames to pursue in the new year. Both discs are back out on February 12 and can be pre-ordered below.

Plan B (originally released as Silvertone 01241-41767-2, 2001 – reissued New Hulex/BMG Rights Management LLC 538615302, 2021) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. We’re Not Here for a Long Time (We’re Here for a Good Time)
2. My Other Woman
3. I Ain’t Perfect
4. When I Write the Book
5. I’m Not in Love Yet (Duet with Wynonna)
6. Thank You, No. 19
7. Plan B
8. The Rhythm Ranch
9. Let Her Go and Start Over
10. I Never Think About You
11. So Little Kindness

Soulsville (originally released as W.O.W. Records CD-WOWR-1001, 2010 – reissued New Hulex/BMG Rights Management LLC 538615319, 2021) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Don’t Fight It
2. Got to Get You Off My Mind
3. Free
4. Respect Yourself
5. Cry to Me
6. Just One More Day
7. Never Found a Girl
8. Soulsville
9. Little Sally Walker
10. I Want to (Do Everything for You)
11. Just the One (I’ve Been Looking For)
12. Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You
13. Never Like This Before
14. Grab This Thing