Pandering to America: Huey Lewis and James Brown List Cities
There’s nothing a big stadium concert crowd loves more than hearing the name of their city shouted by their favorite rock star. In the ’80s, a few performers figured out how to work the names of many U.S. cities into hit songs, in what can only be described as pandering to audiences hungry for recognition of their American hometowns. Or as Blender Magazine put it in their 2009 listicle 50 Worst Songs Ever: “Less a song than a craven attempt to curry favor from drunken arena crowds trained to roar on cue when they hear their city’s name mentioned.” So what happens when Huey Lewis and James Brown list cities?
Huey Lewis Lists Cities: The Heart of Rock & Roll
In 1984, Huey Lewis and the News had a hit with “Heart of Rock & Roll,” which worked 15 cities into a top-10 hit. Lewis also figured out how to rhyme “beating” with “Cleveland” — a linguistic feat and certainly one your podcast hosts appreciated as teens growing up in the “mistake by the lake.” Any shoulder chips we may have been carrying due to a certain river catching on fire during our formative years were brushed away with this major shout-out from Huey himself.
In fact, according to songfacts.com, different versions of the song were recorded and sent to various radio stations across America listing names of nearby cities in an early version of microtargeting. So if you lived in New Mexico, Huey shouted out Santa Fe. Smart huh? Hey, a band’s gotta eat. And songwriter Johnny Colla, the News guitarist/horn player, was thinking ahead to retirement. He was inspired by the 60’s song “Dancin’ in the Streets,” which also shouted out city names (as do Bowie and Mick Jagger in their 80’s recording of it, though they went global with international cities.)
“Less a song than a craven attempt to curry favor from drunken arena crowds trained to roar on cue when they hear their city’s name mentioned.”
Blender Magazine on “Heart of Rock & Roll” in “50 Worst Songs Ever”
James Brown Lists Cities: Living in America
Not to be outdone with Huey’s chorus of cartographical cataloging, in 1985, the Godfather of Soul James Brown made it to number four– and scored a Grammy– with “Living in America,” squeezing in nine city mentions. Check out the whole video for “Living in America” here:
The song is also well remembered as a breakout hit from the movie “Rocky IV,” it plays while Apollo Creed takes the stage. Brown filmed it at the Ziegfeld Room at the Ziegfeld Room at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Watch the credits and you’ll see him listed as “The Godfather of Soul”. That’s also Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar and The Uptown Horns on back up (you can hear their talents on the B52s track “Love Shack” as well!)
Living in America was written by prolific songwriter Charlie Midnight and baby-faced songwriter Dan Hartman. Hartman had written “Free Ride” while with the Edgar Winter Group, and also had a hit of his own in the 1980s with “I Can Dream About You.” That song was also written for a movie called “Streets of Fire,” which plays on the background in the “Dream” video. Hartman plays a bartender in that video, making eyes at video vixen Joyce Heiser, whom you may recall from the 80’s hit “Just One Of the Guys.”
“Living in America” also spurred everyone’s favorite satirist Weird Al Yankovic to write “Living with a Hernia” which is really not to be missed.
There is so much more to say about Brown based on a crazy story from CNN that alleges he didn’t actually die of natural causes as is officially mentioned, but that’s a story for another episode.
In the end, I think we can all agree, when Huey Lewis and James Brown list cities, it may not qualify as high art, but after you listen you might shout “I feel good!”
Hello to Elizabeth and Margaret. I very much enjoyed your podcast about Red Red Wine. Thank you for helping a…