Synopsis

Huey Lewis wakes up late and realizes he has a concert to play that night. He races across San Francisco in a yellow Porsche, then switches to a ferry and finally a helicopter in an increasingly frantic attempt to arrive on time. Along the way, he spots the same mysterious woman twice. After reaching the venue, Lewis performs with The News and discovers that the woman has found her way into the front row.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video treats the song as a fast-moving love story rather than a literal song about drugs. Huey Lewis later explained that the band wanted to avoid simply illustrating the lyrics.

• The woman Lewis notices during his journey is played by Signy Coleman. She also appeared in the band's earlier video for "Heart and Soul."

• The yellow Porsche was not Lewis' own car. He said the idea for it came from Paul Newman's yellow Porsche in the 1966 private-eye movie "Harper."

• The San Francisco setting reflects the band's connection to its home city, with the chase using several distinctly local forms of transportation.

• The video uses the 3:29 single edit, which removes the album version's first guitar solo and ends with a sustained chord fading out.

• The clip was nominated for Best Direction in a Video at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984.

• The song later became central to the copyright dispute surrounding Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters." Lewis argued that the hit film theme copied elements of "I Want a New Drug"; the case was settled out of court.

• "I Want a New Drug" reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the signature songs from the band's 1983 album "Sports."