Naturally

Fore!; Huey Lewis and The News

I don’t know when I first heard Huey Lewis and the News. But they caught my attention when my friend Mark, the RA across the hall in Matthew’s Hall on SDSU campus, pulled me into his room to listen to a track from the album “Fore!”. “Check this out …”

All the birds have been blue

They don’t know what to do

Ever since you said goodbye to me

And the flowers in their gloom

Have just refused to bloom

Cause we all want you back, you see

Mmmmmmm, naturally

OOooooooo. Me like. No guitars. No bass. No keyboards. And, best of all, no drums. Just thick, full, hip and soulful harmony sung by Mr. Lewis and his media brethren.

Very nice. “Hold on. Here they go …”

Bah dup. Bah dup. Bop, bop, bahdup.

Bah dup. Bah dup. Bop boo wahh.

Wow, this is cool! “Shhhh!” Sorry.

And old Mister Moon

Is left without a tune

And his shadow’s lost the harmony

So don’t waste any time

Come back and change your mind

Everything will work out

Naturally

I didn’t know that he sang this doo-wop stuff. “It’s cool, isn’t it? This is the only track on all of their albums where the group sings an acapella tune like this.”

The rest of the tunes on the CD sound like your typical Top Forty stuff, and it sounds real nice. I like ‘em. “WHAT?!?!?!”, you’re probably asking. Yup. This was probably the first time that I ever allowed myself to like something Rock ‘N Rollish, Top Fortyish, my generationish.

Right or wrong, I find that I subconsciously regard a song on the merits of whether I can reproduce an effective version of the song at the piano. This is somewhat of a self-serving procedure to gauge the caliber of a song, I will grant you. But I don’t think I can change it. It’s how I listen to popular music. And here’s the good news: The music of Huey Lewis and his News recreates well on the piano.

I bought my copy of “Fore!” at a used CD store in St. Louis, Missouri, while working on the Delta Queen. Believe it or not, the CD store was next to a newsstand.

Credits: To the boys in the Brookings High School Concert Choir, who sang “Naturally” just as fine as you would ever ask high school boys to sing. You were mahvellous.