rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News are an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually achieving 19 top ten singles across the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, Adult Contempora ...
. It was released in 1991 on
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
for most of the world and Chrysalis in the UK. ''Hard at Play'' peaked at number 27 on the ''Billboard'' 200 pop albums chart and produced two top 40 singles, "Couple Days Off" and "It Hit Me Like a Hammer". Music videos were released for "It Hit Me like a Hammer", "Couple Days Off", and "He Don't Know".
Critical reception
In a review for
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
, Stephen Thomas Erlewine notes the "return to the straight-ahead blues-inflected pop/rock that made Huey Lewis and the News superstars in the early '80s" with ''Hard at Play''.
Track listing
#"Build Me Up" (
Johnny Colla
John Victor Colla (born July 2, 1952) is an American musician (playing the guitar and saxophone), singer and songwriter. He is a founding member of the American rock band Huey Lewis and the News. He has been heavily involved in the San Franci ...
,
Huey Lewis
Hugh Anthony Cregg III (born July 5, 1950), known professionally as Huey Lewis, is an American singer, songwriter, and actor.
Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many o ...
Robert "Mutt" Lange
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, Lewis) – 4:01
#"Attitude" (
Max Carl
Max Carl Gronenthal (born January 29, 1950) is an American rock singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter. He is the co-lead singer of the classic rock band Grand Funk Railroad. In addition, he spent several years as the keyboardist and le ...
) – 4:00
#"He Don't Know" (
Don Covay
Donald James Randolph (March 24, 1936 – January 31, 2015), better known by the stage name Don Covay, was an American R&B, rock and roll, and soul singer-songwriter most active from the 1950s to the 1970s.
His most successful recordings incl ...
,
Jon Tiven
Jon Tiven (born January 3, 1955) is an American composer, guitarist, record producer, and music journalist. He has produced albums by Wilson Pickett, Frank Black and Don Covay as well as a series of tribute albums paying tribute to the songwriti ...
, Sally Tiven) – 4:15
#" Couple Days Off" (Chris Hayes, Lewis, Geoffrey Palmer) – 4:56
#"That's Not Me" (Michael Ruff) – 4:15
#"We Should Be Making Love" (Andy Goldmark, Steve Kipner, Steve Lindsey) – 4:01
#"Best of Me" (Bonnie Hayes, Kevin Hayes, Annie Stocking) – 3:57
#"Do You Love Me, Or What?" (C. Hayes, Lewis,
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in power pop and new wave,
Huey Lewis
Hugh Anthony Cregg III (born July 5, 1950), known professionally as Huey Lewis, is an American singer, songwriter, and actor.
Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many o ...
–
harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
,
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
Johnny Colla
John Victor Colla (born July 2, 1952) is an American musician (playing the guitar and saxophone), singer and songwriter. He is a founding member of the American rock band Huey Lewis and the News. He has been heavily involved in the San Franci ...
–
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
,
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
, backing vocals
* Bill Gibson –
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
,
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
, backing vocals
* Chris Hayes – guitar, backing vocals
* Sean Hopper –
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
, backing vocals
Additional personnel
* The Gospel Hummingbirds – backing vocals (4)
* David Fredericks – backing vocals (5, 10)
* Mike Duke – backing vocals (6)
* Michael Ruff – backing vocals (6)
*
John McFee
John McFee (born September 9, 1950, Santa Cruz, California) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist, and long-time member of The Doobie Brothers.
Biography
Some of McFee's early and non-Doobie ...
– guitar (11)
Production
* Huey Lewis and the News – producers
*
Bill Schnee
William S. Schnee (born July 4, 1947) is an American musician, music producer, and audio engineer. Schnee has been nominated 11 times for the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Grammy Award and worked on a multitude of other Grammy nominated an ...
– producer, engineer, mixing
* Eric "ET" Thorngren – co-producer (1, 5), additional engineer
* Bob Brown – executive producer
* Bob Edwards – additional engineer, assistant engineer
* Jeffrey "Nik" Norman – additional engineer
* Ken Allardyce – assistant engineer, mix assistant
* Tony Eckert – assistant engineer
* Stephen Hart – assistant engineer
* Tim Lauber – assistant engineer
* Kevin Scott – assistant engineer
* Jim "Watts" Vereecke – assistant engineer
*
Jack Joseph Puig
Jack Joseph Puig is an American audio engineer, A&R executive, and record producer. He has worked with Tonic, Hole, Jellyfish, The Black Crowes, John Mayer, Weezer, Fiona Apple, Roger Hodgson, Taxiride, Green Day, Counting Crows, No Doubt, Klaxo ...
– mixing
*
Doug Sax
Doug Lionel Sax (April 26, 1936 – April 2, 2015) was an American mastering engineer from Los Angeles, California. He mastered three of The Doors' albums, including their 1967 debut; six of Pink Floyd's albums, including ''The Wall''; Ray Charles ...
– mastering at The Mastering Lab (Hollywood, CA).
* Henry Marquez – art direction
* Michael Diehl – design
*
Aaron Rapoport
Aaron Rapoport (born May 22, 1954) is an American photographer, best known for his photographs of musicians.
Biography
In a career that spans over three decades, Rapoport has photographed in a wide variety of areas including commercial photogr ...