Huey Lewis

Huey Lewis born Hugh Anthony Cregg III July 5 1950 is an American singer songwriter and actor best known as the lead vocalist and harmonica player of the rock band Huey Lewis and the News The band achieved massive success in the 1980s with hits such as The Power of Love Hip to Be Square and Stuck with You and their album Sports 1983 remains one of the bestselling pop releases of all time Born in New York City and raised in Marin County California Lewis attended Strawberry Point Elementary School where he skipped second grade and Edna Maguire Junior High School His mother Magda Cregg was a Polish refugee and his maternal grandfather invented the red wax sealant used on certain cheeses After his parents divorced when he was 13 he was sent to the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey graduating in 1967 with a perfect 800 on the math SAT He enrolled at Cornell University in the engineering program but dropped out in his junior year in December 1969 to pursue music As a teenager Lewis hitchhiked across the country stowed away on a plane to Europe and spent time busking in Madrid Spain where he became an accomplished blues harmonica player Upon returning to the US he joined the Bay Area band Clover in 1971 adopting the stage name Huey Lewis inspired by poet Lew Welch his mothers longtime partner Clover recorded two albums in the UK with producer Mutt Lange but struggled as punk rock overshadowed their pubrock sound While Lewis was on vacation the rest of the band backed Elvis Costello on his debut album My Aim Is True Clover disbanded in 1979 In 1979 Lewis formed Huey Lewis and the American Express which soon became Huey Lewis and the News After a unsuccessful selftitled debut in 1980 the band broke through with Picture This 1982 and exploded with Sports 1983 which sold over 10 million copies in the US and produced multiple Top 10 hits Their followup Fore 1986 also reached No 1 Lewis wrote or cowrote many of the bands songs and contributed harmonica to notable recordings including Thin Lizzys Live and Dangerous 1978 The bands music featured prominently in popular culture most notably with The Power of Love in Back to the Future 1985 in which Lewis also had a cameo They contributed to We Are the World and scored 14 Top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hits during the 1980s and early 1990s In 1995 Lewis sued Ray Parker Jr over similarities between I Want a New Drug and the Ghostbusters theme The case was settled out of court Lewis has also produced for artists such as Nick Lowe and Bruce Hornsby In 2018 Lewis was forced into semiretirement after being diagnosed with Ménières disease which caused severe hearing loss By 2025 he reported total deafness though a cochlear implant has partially restored his ability to hear speech Despite this the band continues to tour occasionally and Lewis remains active in other projects In 2024 the jukebox musical The Heart of Rock and Roll based on the bands catalog premiered on Broadway In February 2025 he was the inaugural inductee into the Peoples Music Hall of Fame