Huey Lewis and the News

Huey Lewis found gargantuan mid-'80s success by masquerading as a rock & roller. Due to the News' bar-band competence, the hits were letter-perfect versions of fundamental rock, but Lewis' remarkably unnuanced vocals and jockish sensibility were such that the songs missed the spirit by miles. After a desultory debut, the Bay Area sextet -- originally named American Express -- scored with "Workin' for a Livin'" and "Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do" from Picture This. Sports was the band's biggest hit, with radio-friendly tunes such as "I Want a New Drug" and "The Heart of Rock & Roll." Yet the entire record could have passed for the soundtrack to a TV commercial. Fore! yielded the bland hit "It's Hip to Be Square." Small World and Hard at Play offer more of the same. Four Chords and Several Years Ago, the group's last studio album, was actually one of their more endearing. Covering chestnuts like "Some Kind of Wonderful," "Blue Monday," and "Stagger Lee," they sound exactly like the competent bar band that, essentially, they were. (PAUL EVANS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide