Customer Reviews

Heart of Rock and Roll: The Best of Huey Lewis and the News

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

They say that good things come to those who wait. Well, thousands of fans waited patiently for years for a Huey Lewis & The News compilation, only to be extremely disappointed with Time Flies. I bought Time Flies as soon as I started collecting CDs, and up to now I just lived with being unsatisfied with its track listing.

God knew how much I wanted a great Huey Lewis & The News CD, so He gave me an idea recently. Instead of waiting for another American compilation to be released, find out if there's a good import of their greatest studio hits. That's how I came up on this, a UK import entitled The Heart of Rock & Roll: The Best of Huey Lewis & The News. This excellent one-disc collection has the four essential big hits that I was dying to have in my library that Time Flies left off for some unknown reason.

"Jacob's Ladder" was one of three songs to hit #1 for the band. "Walking on a Thin Line" is a vastly underrated song of the 80s, featuring one of the band's best hooks. "Perfect World" should be a major anthem song that the world knows by heart, just like Queen's "We Will Rock You" and Kool & The Gang's "Celebration." Just think about it. The next time the Yankees lose in the World Series, the opposing team's stadium could play "Perfect World," and it would fit to a tee! "Hip To Be Square" is thought by many to be the song that best symbolizes what Huey Lewis & The News are: A group that loves to make music, entertain their fans, and to have fun doing it.

And of course, you get most of the group's other biggest hits, such as the catchy classic, "Power of Love," the misunderstood "I Want A New Drug," the title track, and the song on which Huey Lewis & The News show their musicianship skills, "Heart & Soul." I say 'most' because this album doesn't quite have ALL the hits. "I Know What I Like," "Doing it All for My Baby," "It's Alright," "Couple Days Off," and "It Hit Me Like A Hammer" were left off. But those omissions aren't as damaging as the ones that were left off of Time Flies are.

If you're a big Huey Lewis & The News fan, don't waste your time and money on Time Flies. Whether you buy it here and now on Amazon or wait patiently for it on eBay, THIS is the single-disc compilation to get if you don't want to shell out the cash for the 3-disc box set.

There are several Huey Lewis & News compilations floating around out there but this one of the few that comes close to capturing all their essential 80's hits with a few album tracks thrown in.

First of all, the tracks listed here are incorrect for some reason. Here's the real track list: 1) Power Of Love, 2) Hip To Be Square, 3) Do You Believe In Love, 4) If This Is It, 5) Some Of My Lies Are True, 6) Workin' For A Livin' (Live), 7) Bad Is Bad, 8) I Want A New Drug, 9) The Heart Of Rock And Roll, 10) Heart And Soul, 11) Jacob's Ladder, 12) Stuck With You, 13) Trouble In Paradise, 14) Walking On A Thin Line, 15) Perfect World, 16) Small World (Part One), 17) Back In Time.

As you can see, this compilation covers almost all their 80's hits. Of the few hits that are missing, it would have been nice for them to have included "Doin' It All For My Baby" instead of one of the lesser known tracks but other than that this is a great compliation. You get everything from their first #1 hit "The Power Of Love" (IMO one of their best songs and a great track from a great movie in "Back To The Future") to the truckload of great hits off of their most successful album "Sports" (including the vastly underrated "Walking On A Thin Line") to lesser known tracks such as "Some Of My Lies Are True", "Small World (Part One)" and "Back In Time", their other "Back To The Future" song.

The "Time Flies" compilation does pick up a few missing tracks that would have been nice to have here as well (like the aformentioned "Doing It All For My Baby" and "It's Alright") but it misses several key tracks like "Hip To Be Square", "Jacob's Ladder" and "Perfect World". The only Huey Lewis compilation that might be better than this one is the Japanese "Greatest" cd but I highly recommend this one if you can't get that one.

Like many people, I waited patiently for some time for a Huey Lewis compilation to come out, only to be disappointed by 1996's _Time Flies_. In many ways, _The Heart of Rock and Roll_ is the album that one would have wished for in its place, focusing on the group's 1980's heyday, and leaving attempted comebacks and doo-wop excursions by the wayside. Featured here are "Walking on a Thin Line", "Back in Time", "Hip to Be Square", and "Jacob's Ladder", all of which missed the cut on the American compilation. An energetic live version of "Working for a Living" is an added bonus. The sequencing is a bit odd, but the sound is good (for the most part), and the artwork recalls the era that the album covers.

All that having been said, there are a few negatives that need to be considered. (ominous pause)

1. The price tag - really, you could probably find most of their albums used for what this costs. 2. Where is "Doing it All for my Baby?" 3.(this is a big one) In what has to be one of the larger gaffes by a major label in recent history, the Canadian single version of "Heart of Rock and Roll" was used - not only does it it sound irredeemably muddy, but, during the fadeout, we are treated to the sound of someone (and it sure doesn't sound like Huey) yelling "TORONTO!!... MONTREAL!!!". In a way, it's hillarious, but really, it's infuriating, because no one wants to pay good money for a disc with such careless production work. I guess, as the man said... ain't no livin' in a perfect world. But we'll keep on dreaming....

If you new to Huey Lewis and The News this one does it.
The great thing with Huey Lewis is that he has his own simple style, that it`s easy to remember. From the first track Power of Love (from the hit movie Back to the Future) to the last one Track 17 Back in Time ( also from Back to the Future) you talkin` "rock and roll, man". This is the real thing when it comes to how you should write songs which tells you how it was back in the 80 ths. Because this is the sound of the 80 ths, with synth symphonies that bring you in to a good mood. Sometimes it sounds like "sodastream music" who makes you think pink. Most of the Huey Lewis hit`s from the 80 ths are included here. The one that realy put your soul in to gear is the Track 9 The heart of Rock % Roll, and also Track 12 Stuck with You, shows much of the same "real thing quality". So if Huey Lewis and the News are new to you this is a very good introduction. It`s realy a coooool listening if you close your`e eyes and want to bring memories from the 80 ths back again. You know it`s so Hip to be Square

If you havent got any Huey Lewis albums yet, then i'd recomend this one more then the other greatest hits! This one is not just a greatest hits, it also contains a few new ones and unreleased tracks (for the time this album came out) and when i bought it I only knew the songs every one else does "Power Of Love" "Back In Time" from Back To The Futures soundtrack....and "hip to be square" but suprsingly this album also had alot of other great tunes just as good as those! If your into those 3 songs, you will defnitly love this album!

If i was to pick out one downfall, it would only be that this does not have "couple of days off" which im not to sure when that song came out? or if it was written by 1992 when this album came out! but apart from that, this album is great!

I had gotten hooked on Huey as a senior in high school in 2001!
I had a teacher record Fore! for me and I listened to it a bunch and I wanted more and I'm talking about the songs you hear on the radio! Like "If this is It" (one of my personal faves), "Heart and Soul", "I Want a New Drug", and "Heart of Rock and Roll" those four! in fact I'm listening to this CD while I write this! I saw all the hits on this CD and previewed the ones I didn't know much about and said I have to get this one and this was on friday night!!! There's seventeen songs here with not one bad song!!! Well some are better than others like Do You Believe in Love isn't my fave!
But this CD has "Back in Time" from Back to the Future and "Perfect World" and "Small World"(Part One) It also has "Bad is Bad" and "Workin' for a Livin'(Live) No it doesn't have "It's Alright", "Couple Days Off" or Hit me Like a Hammer" but this is ten times better than Time Flies and it will probably be about 22 bucks because it's an import CD but fork out the cash cause you won't be sorry!!! Trust me!!! I'm 20 and this is the only CD I own!!!
HLN 4 life!!!

Huey Lewis and the News is one of the few excellent American rockers who keep the traditional blues flavored American rock'n roll along with Bruce the boss, John Mellemcamp, Bob Seger and John Cafferty. Heart of Soul and Heart of Rock'n Roll well represents their style of rock and I love them far better than most well-known Power of Love. This compilation emcompasses almost all hits that we know of with some extra great non-hit tracks such as Bad and Bad and Some Of My Lies Are True. If you love great music this is the CD you will add for your collection.

Buyer Beware! This is NOT the "Heart of Rock & Roll" CD. This in fact is "Collection", which has next to nothing on it. While the CD cover is the same, the track listing is not. I for one, will not purchase from Import CD Specialists again. I spend way too much money with Amazon to have to deal with this garbage.

This CD is quite good. I bought it here in Canada for less than $10. Check amazon.ca for better prices. I bought it just for ONE song. I have always wanted the Canadian ver. of "Heart of Rock and Roll". I LOVE hearing "TORONTO...MONTREAL" near the end.

I want to address 3 things brought up in other reviews.

1. The "muddiness" of the sound. It was released in 1992 and used non-remastered analog tape for the songs. The audio quality is comparible to other analog tape CDs.

2. The versions of the songs are the single versions of the songs. Remember singles? They were the versions played on the radio, and bought on 45s. So, they are NOT edited for this compilation, but edited when they were released.

3. This was a UK release that was also released in Canada. So, this may have been compiled based on sales/chart position from the UK and may not be what you want based on US stats.

So, based on this I gave it 4 stars.

Recently, Capitol ut out a very extensive greatest hits collection of these guys, covering pretty much all of their music that most would remember. The deluxe editin comes with a DVD with a bunch of their music videos. Don't get me wrong, it's very entertaining stuff to watch. I'm only disappointed that they neglected to include the live performance clip of "Jackob's Ladder" which shows the band off in their finest element: the concert stage. For the Fore! tour (1986-87), that was their opening number and one that shows off the band for what they are: a top notch rock & roll band with plenty of power and passion. The guitarist is on top of his game and Huey works the crowd like a pro. unfortunately, that video's not included, and you'll have to pull it up on Youtube if you want to see it. Other than that, the Capitol CD is a fine collection of songs. This one, however, just flows better for me. It has unique versions of two of their hits from "Sports": "I Want a new Drug" is presented in its single version with the ending instead of the long fade (which is great for me, since I work on the radio) and a version of "The Heart of %ock & Roll" that mentions Toronto and Montreal at the tail end just before the fade. That's included here perhaps because this disc comes from Canada! Overall, the flow of this collection makes it worth every penny for me. As another reviewer noted, this was the collection that "Time Flies" could have been. Not to take anything away from "Time Flies" either, there are four new tracks included there. But THIS is the definitive best-of collection on this band.