Actors - Huey Lewis

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	Actors - Huey Lewis

Huey Lewis, (born Hugh Anthony Cregg III, July 5, 1950 in New York City) is a musician and singer. He sings lead vocals and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis & The News, a rock group based in San Francisco, California that was particularly popular during the 1980s. He also played with the band Clover from 1972 to 1979.

Biography

Huey grew up in Marin County, California. In 1967, preparing to graduate from The Lawrenceville School, Huey applied and was accepted by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, having attained a perfect score of 800 on the mathematics portion of the SAT, but on the advice of his father, he postponed enrolling in college, and instead he headed for Europe. As he hitchhiked around the continent, he learned to play the harmonica whilst waiting for rides. Huey became an accomplished blues player, and gave his first concert in Europe, earning $150 for it before returning to the United States.

On his return, Huey entered Cornell, joining the engineering program. While there, he made friends with Lance and Larry Hoppen, who later played with Orleans and King Harvest. Huey soon lost interest in college though. He signed up with a band called Slippery Elm, and in December 1969 he dropped out of Cornell, moving back to the San Francisco area - his aim was to continue playing music, but along the way he also tried other fields of work including landscaping, carpentry and natural foods.

In 1971, Huey joined the Bay Area band Clover. Around this time he took the name Huey Lewis. The Lewis is for his mother Magda Cregg's boyfriend, Beat Generation poet Lew(is) Welch, who he considered his stepfather. Sean Hopper joined the band in 1972 - other members of the band were John McFee, Alex Call, John Ciambotti, Mitch Howie, Mickey Shine and Marcus David. Huey played harmonica with the band and only sang lead vocals on a few tunes. Clover's main rival band (which developed into a friendly rivalry) were Soundhole (Johnny Colla, Mario Cipollina and Bill Gibson were band members).

In 1976, after playing in the Bay Area with limited success, Clover went to Los Angeles - they had their 'big break' in a club there when their act was caught by Nick Lowe - he convinced Clover to travel to Britain with him. But Clover was not successful in Britain, the band arrived just as their folk-rock sound (known as pub rock in Britain) was being replaced by punk rock. They recorded two albums for the British Phonogram label, both albums produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, but they both bombed.

While Huey went on vacation, the rest of Clover backed Elvis Costello on his debut album My Aim is True. The band returned to California, McFee joined the Doobie Brothers, and Clover broke up.

In 1978 Huey was playing at Uncle Charlie's, a club in Corte Madera, California, doing the 'Monday Night Live' spot, along with future members of the News. After recording the song 'Exo-Disco' (a disco version of the theme from the film Exodus), Huey got a 'singles contract' from Phonogram Records, and Bob Brown became his manager. Huey Lewis and the American Express formed in 1979, with the same line-up as the News - the band played a few gigs (including an opening for Van Morrison), but on Brown's advice, they changed their name again - and Huey Lewis and the News was born.

After a failed self titiled debut in 1980, the band finally broke through to Top 40 success, with the gold album "Picture This" (1982) riding to #13 on the albums chart thanks to the Mutt Lange penned "Do You Believe In Love" #7 becoming the bands first hit.

The band's third LP, the #1Sports (1983), was one of the best-selling pop releases of all time selling 10 million copies in the states alone according to the bands own VH1 special. It was followed up by another big seller, Fore! (1986) another #1 Multi platinum smash.

The band spent the remainder of the 80's and early 90's racking up an impressive string of 14 Top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hits and releasing two more hit albums "Small World"(1988) #11 and "Hard At Play"(1991) #27, by the time the band released their critically acclaimed covers album "Four Chords & Several Years Ago"(1994) #55, their chosen lower profile and lack of promotion from new label Elektra, saw their Top 40 appeal dip for good, yet they have endured as one of America's top drawing live acts and have continued to have the occassional hit on adult contemporary radio.

As well as singing lead vocals and playing harmonica with the band, Huey also writes or co-writes many of their songs. Outside the band, his interests include golf, baseball, fishing and owning a racing car.

Huey has made appearances in several movies. The first was a cameo in Back to the Future
(1985). The band also recorded two songs for the soundtrack, including the hit "The Power Of Love." Huey's second movie appearance was in Short Cuts
(1993). Huey had a much more significant role and a very memorable scene in it. In addition, Huey appeared in the first few minutes of the movie Sphere (1998) as the helicopter pilot. After that role, he had a large part in Shadow of a Doubt
(1998) which appeared on Showtime. He had an uncredited role in Dead Husbands (1998) as the husband killed during the opening credits.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Huey Lewis ]

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Actors - Huey Lewis

Biography

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