NewsHuey Lewis & The News / Sports 30th Anniversary Edition
Huey Lewis & The News‘ 1983 album Sports will be reissued as a newly remastered two-CD 30th anniversary edition on 13 May 2013.
The album was a massive hit in the US when originally released, spawning four top 10 hit singles, although the same 45s performed more modestly in the UK and Europe. Nevertheless, Sports sold enormously, and has shifted almost 10 million ‘units’ globally to date.
A 1999 expanded edition of Sports boasted a couple of ‘session takes’ as well as three live tracks, but this new anniversary edition (personally overseen by Huey Lewis) omits these studio cuts, and the bonus CD simply includes a live version of every track on the album, many of which are said to be previously unreleased.
The special edition includes an expanded booklet with photos and memorabilia from the band’s archive and new liner notes by music journalist and author Gary Graff.
The band have also announced a North American summer tour to coincide with the 30th Anniversary of Sports.
- • UK Pre-order: Sports 30th Anniversary Deluxe
- • USA Pre-order: Sports (30th Anniversary Edition)
- • CANADA Pre-order: Sports (30th Anniversary Edition)
- • GERMANY Pre-order: Sports 30th Anniversary Deluxe
Huey Lewis and The News: Sports (30th Anniversary Edition)
CD 1 – Remastered Original Album
- 1. The Heart Of Rock & Roll
- 2. Heart And Soul
- 3. Bad Is Bad
- 4. I Want A New Drug
- 5. Walking On A Thin Line
- 6. Finally Found A Home
- 7. If This Is It
- 8. You Crack Me Up
- 9. Honky Tonk Blues
CD 2 – Live versions
- 1. The Heart Of Rock & Roll
- 2. Heart And Soul
- 3. Bad Is Bad
- 4. I Want A New Drug
- 5. Walking On A Thin Line
- 6. Finally Found A Home
- 7. If This Is It
- 8. You Crack Me Up
- 9. Honky Tonk Blues
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I love this reissue. The Tower of Power horns are very prominent on the live versions. Huey has some great lines too – on the Bad is Bad live version the all you can eat buffet is now $5.99 and on I Want a New Drug live version Huey now says that he doesn’t dig pills. Excellent job with the live versions on this 30th anniversary edition.
Agree with most here. The remastering on the 1999 CD sounded a bit tinny, but I bought the Japanese Mini-LP version from 2009 and it has the same tracks (including the live and session takes), plus great remastering.
This new one isn’t interesting to me for the same reasons you listed above. There were no notable B sides from the album, but certainly quite a bunch of really interesting remixes and alternate takes on vinyl, some of which didn’t even make it on the Super Selections EP.
For instance, the “I want a New Drug” instrumental remix or the Extended 12″ Mix of “Heart and Soul” (different from the one on Super Selections). It would be really nice to have these on an official release, but then again, I’m pretty happy with my vinyl rips.
I’d love to see a box set with all this stuff (some badass “Fore!” era remixes out there, too, not to mention the “Small World” dance mix!), but HLN aren’t very interested in re-releasing rare stuff from their past. So this is probably all we’ll get for a while.
I’m happy to see this album get some new love. Perhaps it’ll reach a new audience. And perhaps, just perhaps, some remasters of their other albums will follow. They’re just as good as “Sports”.
Nobody wants to pay for your crappy live versions that they’ll listen to once. Just put them on YouTube and give fans what they want: b-sides and 12-inch remixes. Good grief.
The 12″ mixes would be nice (to replace original vinyl), but I’ll be buying anyway. I only own the 80’s CD pressing and am looking forward to the remaster. Great album.
You can pick up super selections very cheap these days though.
Paragraph 3 – “every album on the track”??!! :-)
As for the lack of 12″ versions, I think a number of artists see these as necessary evils of the time, whereas fans often loved them. I guess that there is a dilemma between whether a reissue of a classic album should be the artist’s choice or the fans’ choice.
[…] 30th Anniversary tour for the iconic album ‘Sports.’ The album will also be reissued (& remastered) as a 2-CD edition on May 13, 2013. Check below for the 2013 Huey Lewis & The News tour […]
I agree. Poor show. What are the chances the whole lot fits on one CD too?
This is very nice album, but these deluxe edition is awful. No b-sides, no demoes, no 12″ mixes. Nice try, but no thanks.
Fully agree with Pete. The absence of any 12 inch from the album singles is very annoying. Really don’t understand it, because they also weren’t on the 1999 remaster. I am gonna pass this one.
The live versions will be nice to have, but they should also have included the 12″ mixes of the singles etc. There were are couple of Japanese 12″ EP’s. named “Super Selections” and a CD of the same name, that included the “London, Toyko” version of “The Heart Of Rock and Roll” and the 12″ mixes of “I Want A New Drug” and “Heart And Soul” and so on. I think this new release is a shade disappointing. A full live show from the period would have been good too.