Huey Lewis & The News - Greatest Hits
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Free Music Notes for Greatest Hits
Free Music Review: An excellent overview of the world's greatest (and most overachieving) bar band.
Hit: 5 Stars
Being a child in the 80's, it was kind of hard to avoid being subjected to the videos and singles on the radio of Huey Lewis & The News, particularly during their peak popularity years of 83 to 86.
Most critics loathed them, audiences (in particular yuppies & baby boomers) loved their music. They would explode in popularity with 1983's #1 album Sports followed by the 1986 #1 followup Fore!.
But their popularity would not be seen as enduring as their star power/album sales would start to drop with 1988's Small World (only got to #11) and 1991's Hard at Play (peaked at #27 on the album charts.)
The band would then release a compilation in 1996 called Time Flies (that contained hits plus 4 great new tracks), a covers album a couple of years prior and a new (and great) studio album in 2001 called Plan B.
This new Greatest Hits collection released in 2006 has 21 tracks on it (though only 20 are with The News, the track Crusin' was a duet that Huey did with Gwenyth Paltrow from the movie Duets) and provides an excellent overview of the band's career/sound.
All of the hits are here in addition to a couple of album cuts sprinkled throughout. The only glaring omission is that nothing from their 1st self titled album is represented here. While I realize that they didn't start getting popular until 1982's album Picture This (that had the smash single "Do You Belive in Love"), you would think that they would have at least put one track from it on here.
Another thing is that a lot of greatest hits compilations, you'll find some single edits on here so that they can cram more tracks on the disc. But the sound quality is great on here as all of the tracks have been remastered to crystal clear sound quality.
The only 2 radio edits that bug me are the edits of The Heart of Rock 'n' Roll & I Want a New Drug. If they had dropped the inclusion of Cruisin' (which is out of place as it isn't a song with The News) then they would've had the room to put the album versions of these 2 songs in particular on there. While I know that a lot of people only know their songs from the radio anyway, the album versions of these 2 tracks are superior versions.
Also, with almost any greatest hits collections, one could lament about the omission of particular tracks in favor of other ones, but with only 80 minutes to work with (this CD clocks in at 79:17), there's only so much they can cram on here.
Another thing is that none of the 4 fantastic 1996 studio tracks from Time Flies are on here. Also, nothing from their 2001 album Plan B is on here as well.
If you're just a passive fan, I would recommend just getting this Greatest Hits disc as it does improve on their prior 1996 compilation in most respects.
But for people wanting more, I would recommend getting this (most place sell this for only 10 dollars), Plan B (you can find it used for only 5 dollars) and Time Flies (it's out of print but you can find it easily used for 5 dollars at most places).
But regardless, this is a great package. The liner notes are great, all of the chart positions of the singles is given and for a single disc compilation, the only thing that could've improved this is the album versions of The Heart of Rock 'n' Roll & I Want a New Drug.
Highly recommended!
BTW, there's another version of this collection you can get for double the price that comes with a 50 minute DVD containing some (but not all) of their videos and a vintage live performance from 1982 (but not the whole concert). A bust in my opinion. Just stick with the regular CD version.
Free Music Review: An all around package
Hit: 5 Stars
Purchasing this retrospective on Huey Lewis and The News has been one of the best CD purchases I have made in quite some time. Writing a review for an item like this is simple. It is quite apparent that this project was taken very seriously by all those involved, and the presentation all around is slick and professional.
First, the packaging is exquisite. Featuring liner notes by Lewis himself, a fun trip down memory lane by superfan Jimmy Kimmel (who apparently regularly hosts The News on his talk show), and then a critical analysis by journalist Paul Liberatore, the buyer is afforded a little perspective on the impact of the band over the years...from its lead singer, from a fan and then from a critic's point of view. All three essays show that Huey Lewis and The News effected a lot of people through the years and provided great memories through their music, concerts, and of course, their classic early-era MTV videos.
Secondly, the songs have never sounded better. I owned several vinyl albums by this band back in the 1980s and the remastering job on this CD is excellent...the songs have a great bounce and sound thick coming through the speakers. Moreover, the song selection is near perfect, and superior to their old greatest hits compilation released in the mid-1990s. I rediscovered "Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do," one of their earliest singles and a song worthy of the larger audience it receives here. Also very enjoyable was late-era News material, especially the late '80s tunes "Perfect World" and "Small World," and the early '90s hits "But It's Alright," "Couple Days Off" and "It's Alright." My only concern with the song selection was that a couple of my old favorites were omitted (probably due to time constraints), including "Walking on a Thin Line" and 1991's "It Hit Me Like a Hammer." But with iTunes, I simply downloaded those two songs and added them to the album on my iPod.
Another note on the packaging---there are tons of great pictures of the band included...from their MTV days, old album and single covers and more, which makes the listen that much better. The release date and chart position for every song is also included, and it reminded me just how many radio hits this band had in their time.
Once again, this is one of the best purchases I have made in a while. "Greatest Hits" is the perfect summer soundtrack and has allowed me to take a stroll down memory lane, remembering the days when I was kid and listening to this music the first time around. There is another version of this album where the CD is packaged with a bonus DVD featuring the band's music videos, but the VH1 Classic channel has been airing many Huey Lewis and The News videos lately that I didn't feel it necessary to buy. After enjoying this CD as much as I have, I am now regretting not picking it up for posterity.
Highly recommended.
Free Music Review: It's hip to be square again...Greatest Hits album shines!
Hit: 5 Stars
Just in time for their new summer tour, 80's superstars Huey Lewis and the News are back with a comprehensive 21-track greatest hits album that truly lives up to its name, Greatest Hits, and is a must for any fans of the band.
Greatest Hits is only the fourth release by the band in the last decade. Plan B was an album of new material that predictably faltered in a world of sugary pop and bouncing rap. A greatest hits album entitled Time Flies was released in 1996 and sold well, and a live album entitled Live at 25 was released in 2005 to celebrate the band's 25th anniversary. Fine albums both, but fans complained that favorites were missing and not every song was getting its due. With Huey and the News hip again in pop culture, Huey showing up on tv shows, the music getting shoutouts in movies like American Psycho, and the band being a solidly consistant and fun draw on the summer music circuit, the time was right for this release. This album is a reward for long time fans by providing the biggest bang for the buck and all the hits you remember.
Greatest Hits contains 21 tracks, five more than Time Flies, and these tracks are pure tap your toes hit songs without any filler. The track sequencing of the new release is excellent, with the triple threat kickoff of Heart of Rock and Roll, I Want a New Drug, and The Power of Love. The record flows smoothly from one track to the next, bringing back memories of days gone by and music from another era. The duet Cruisin', from the movie Duets with Gwyneth Paltrow makes an appearance, as does a live version of Trouble In Paradise. Other tracks making appearances are the classic Hip to be Square, Small World, I Know What I Like, and Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do, If This Is It, and Doing It All For My Baby. The sound quality is wonderful, the engineers doing a fantastic job making each track sound as good as possible.
This is a fun, nostalgic album perfect for fans or those not so familiar with the band's music. The track selection is great, although everyone will have one song or two from the catalogue that they wish was here. At under a dollar a song, this album is a relative bargain, and will be blasting from the speakers at my summer parties. Recommended.
A.G Corwin
St.Louis, MO
Free Music Review: Excellent album! Even good liner notes from Jimmy Kimmel, Huey and others!
Hit: 5 Stars
When I saw this greatest hits album from Huey Lewis and the News, I panicked! Their music always sounds the best in the summer! I didn't know they had 21 hits. I thought as a band, it ended after Hard At Work in 1991, but they had a few hits here and there during the decade. But that period of hits through 4 albums in the '80s is fully covered here. I still love "Heart and Soul", my favorite from 1983's "Sports", the catchy guitars on "The Power of Love", "Perfect World" from 1988, "Back in Time", "Small World"(which is as '80s a song as you can get), the nice duet that Huey Lewis did with Gwyneth Paltow that shows his R&B influences, "Heart Of Rock and Roll", "New Drug", and "Do You Believe In Love." One of the rare artists to have a few hits when they didn't have an album out in 1985. This could be a message to today's artists who take 3 to 4 years between albums to not keep your fans stranded. The fact that they produced their own albums and music shows the creativity they had and still have. Would have liked a few personal song favorites from Huey or the band members instead of just only the hits. Loved the horns, the rocking guitars, the addictive and catchy rhythms and songs. Huey's singing is dynamic on everything, very R&B influenced among the pop sounds the band made. Sorry that Chysalis Records dropped them, but this allows the band to do the songs they want to make. Saw them in concert in 2003--they were superb live! I know that they're going to be tearing up stages again this summer!Free Music Review: Good compilation of HL&TN
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a great compilation by one of the best rock and roll bands of all time, which, unfortanetly, are vastly underrated. Critics hated them, and now people laugh when they hear these old songs again. Especially 'hip to be square' after it was played in the American Psycho film. I'm a big fan of HLN, as I own their first 4 albums, with Sports being my favorite. The only problem is they have way more goodies then this. I recommend picking up the studio albums if you enjoy this sampler enough. There are some great tracks on the albums that nobody knew about. You get all the big hits here. Nice remastering, only problem is some of the songs are single edits, I guess they couldn't fit full versions on 1 disc, so why wasn't it released as a 2 disc set? Was the record company afraid it wouldn't sell well? I'm looking forward to see what their so called new album will sound like. This GH compilation is the latest they've put out along with the pineapple express single.