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by James P. Hauser except where otherwise noted.  All rights reserved.

The Blues Connections Of

Huey Lewis & the News

It might be a little hard to believe that a band which has made so much fun, celebratory, and good-natured music has a strong blues influence, but it sure does. Huey Lewis became interested in the blues as a teenager and was inspired to take up the blues harmonica by the great Little Walter's version of "Going Down Slow". As a teenager, he spent a year touring Europe and found himself in North Africa playing his bluesharp on the streets of Marakesh among the snake charmers, acrobats, and other street performers. After earning a couple of dollars there, he got the idea that he could make a living as a musician. He returned to the US where he started college and also found time to be in a local band. After many years of struggling, he formed a San Francisco bar band called Huey Lewis and the News which became one of the biggest musical groups of the eighties. In 1994, a few years after the band's popularity had cooled, it released an album of oldies covers, Four Chords and Several Years Ago.

More of Huey Lewis's Blues Connections:

A list of blues and R&B songs recorded by Huey Lewis & the News is below. The songs are arranged alphabetically by the names of the blues musicians who composed, originally recorded, and/or popularized them.

Ernie K. Doe: Mother In Law

Fats Domino: Blue Monday

Thurston Harris: Little Bitty Pretty One

Little Walter (performer), St. Louis Jimmy Oden (composer): Going Down Slow

Lloyd Price: Stagger Lee (earlier versions of this old standard were recorded by many bluesmen including Mississippi John Hurt and Jesse Fuller)

Joe Turner: Shake, Rattle and Roll

Sonny Boy Williamson I (aka John Lee Williamson): Good Morning Little Schoolgirl