Huey Lewis is an American singer, songwriter, harmonica player, and actor best known as the frontman of Huey Lewis and the News. His music combines straightforward rock and roll with rhythm and blues, soul, pop, and the energetic feel of a seasoned bar band. With a warm, conversational voice and a strong instinct for melody, Lewis became one of the defining performers of American popular music in the 1980s.
Born Hugh Anthony Cregg III on July 5, 1950, in New York City, Lewis was raised primarily in California. He developed an early interest in blues and harmonica, later spending time in Europe and North Africa while performing as a street musician. After returning to the United States, he joined the Bay Area group Clover. The band became part of the San Francisco music scene and later worked in the United Kingdom, where it recorded with producer Nick Lowe. Although Clover did not achieve major commercial success, the experience gave Lewis a foundation in roots music and live performance.
Lewis formed the band that became Huey Lewis and the News in the late 1970s with musicians including Johnny Colla, Sean Hopper, Bill Gibson, and Mario Cipollina. Their early albums, Huey Lewis and the News and Picture This, established the group's accessible mixture of rock, soul, and pop. The breakthrough arrived with "Do You Believe in Love," a major hit in 1982. The band's sound was polished enough for mainstream radio but retained the punch and spontaneity of a working club act.
The group's third album, Sports, turned Lewis into an international star. Released in 1983, it produced several enduring singles, including "Heart and Soul," "I Want a New Drug," "The Heart of Rock & Roll," and "If This Is It." Its success was reinforced by an inventive run of music videos and extensive touring. Lewis and the News followed it with Fore! in 1986, another commercially successful album featuring "Stuck with You," "Jacob's Ladder," and "Hip to Be Square." The records helped define the bright, sharply arranged pop-rock style associated with the decade.
Lewis also became closely linked with the cinema. He contributed "The Power of Love" to the soundtrack of Back to the Future, appeared briefly in the film, and received an Academy Award nomination for the song. He later made additional screen appearances, including roles in the films Short Cuts and Duets. His interest in performance extended to theater, and the stage musical The Heart of Rock and Roll was built around songs from his catalog.
The band's later albums included Small World, Hard at Play, Four Chords & Several Years Ago, Plan B, and the soul-oriented Soulsville. Huey Lewis and the News released Weather in 2020, their first album of new material in nearly two decades. In 2018, Lewis lost most of his hearing because of hearing-related illness and stopped performing live. Although the condition ended his career as a conventional touring singer, his recordings remain a durable example of melodic, good-humored American rock music, and his work continues to connect classic rhythm and blues with the sound of mainstream pop.