Today’s classic song of the day keeps us in the ’80s with the very popular Huey Lewis and the News and their hit, “The Power of Love.” You may remember the song being featured in the blockbuster film, Back to the Future, or from its popular MTV music video.
“The Power of Love” was written by Newsers Huey Lewis, Johnny Colla, and Chris Hayes. (That’s not the Chris Hayes currently on MSNBC, by the way; this one played lead guitar in the band.) The single was released in June of 1985 and hit #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Mainstream Rock charts. It won Favorite Single and Favorite Video Single at the American Music Awards and was nominated for a Grammy for Record of the Year (losing to “We Are the World”) and an Oscar for Best Original Song (losing to Lionel Richie’s “Say You, Say Me”).
Huey Lewis and the News were a really big deal back in the ’80s. They had an even dozen Top Ten hits in the half-dozen years from 1982 to 1988, including “Do You Believe in Love” (1982), “Heart and Soul” (1983), “I Want a New Drug” (1984), “The Heart of Rock and Roll” (1984), “If This Is It” (1984), “Stuck With You” (1986), “Hip to Be Square” (1986), “Jacob’s Ladder” (1987), “I Know What I Like” (1987), “Doing It All for My Baby” (1987), and “Perfect World” (1988)—along with “The Power of Love,” of course. Not bad for a working class band from San Francisco.
The band, which formed in 1980, performed pretty much continuously until 2018, when Huey Lewis was diagnosed with Ménière’s disease, an inner ear disorder. Huey Lewis and the News continued to record, however, releasing a new album (Weather) in 2020. In April of 2024, a jukebox musical of their songs, titled The Heart of Rock and Roll, opened on Broadway; it had a two-month run before closing on June 23, 2024.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, the official music video for “The Power of Love” from 1985, complete with time-traveling DeLorean and Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown. What a trip…
