Huey Lewis and the News to Celebrate 40th Anniversary of ‘Sports’ with Vinyl Re-Issue

Huey Lewis & The News’ classic album Sports is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and to mark the occasion, Lewis is reissuing the album on vinyl.

The vinyl release will drop September 15, which is exactly 40 years to the day of the initial album’s release. It will come in two different colors: classic black and olive green.

A cultural touchstone upon its release, Sports not only made a star out of its frontman vocalist Huey Lewis but also thrust the band into the global spotlight. Combining the unlikely concoction of power-pop, blue-eyed soul, doo-wop, and rhythm & blues, the album found itself posited in the Top 40 in numerous counties across the globe, including Norway, Canada, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, the U.K. and, of course, their native U.S.

Sports was Huey Lewis & the News’ first number-one album and featured four Top 10 hits: “Heart and Soul,” “The Heart of Rock & Roll,” “I Want A New Drug” and “If This Is It,” with the fifth single, “Walking on a Thin Line,” hitting the Top 20. Launching itself from the get-go with the first single “Heart and Soul” which peaked at #8 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles, Sports was a frequent visitor in the charts. “I Want a New Drug” found the band reaching #6 as did the third and fourth singles “The Heart of Rock and Roll” and “If This Is It” respectively. A fifth single “Walking on a Thin Line” broke the Top 20 at #16 on the Top Rock chart. The album charted in the Top 200 for 160 consecutive weeks, earning the album the remarkable designation of being the second biggest-selling album on Billboard’s end-of-year sales chart, beat only by Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

“In the early 80’s, there was no internet, no alternative scene, and really only one avenue to success; a hit single on CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio). We produced the Sports album ourselves because we wanted to make commercial choices we could live with while we aimed most of the tunes directly at CHR radio. Sports was a collection of singles. We needed a hit single … didn’t know we’d have five of them.” – Huey Lewis

A monumental breakthrough, Sports garnered Huey Lewis & The News two GRAMMYS® – in 1984 for “Best Rock Vocal by a Group” for “Heart and Soul” and in 1985 for “Record of the Year” for “The Heart of Rock and Roll.”

The Sports vinyl is available for pre–order now.