Album: Fore!
Video: From DailyMotion.
Billboard Hot 100 Peak: 1
MTV Top 20 Peak: 1
MTV Top 20 Weeks: 8
Huey Lewis & The News simply dominated the pop charts in the mid-80's, and 1986 was truly the peak. "Stuck With You" was the first single from the wildly successful Fore! album, which spawned five top ten singles. The album title had multiple meanings; in addition to continuing their "Sports" theme (the title of their previous album) with a golf term, it was their fourth album. 4. Four. Fore! Outstanding.
Before "Stuck With You" was released in the summer of 1986, it had been a little over a year since the band's last new single, "The Power Of Love". So fans were hungry for a new offering, and this song did not disappoint. A catchy ditty featuring classic harmonies, and lyrically exploring the universal theme of enduring long-term relationships.
Now...about this ranking. It's truly a crime to see this video way down at #89. Never mind, that it reached #1 on the weekly countdown, one of only 32 songs to do so in 1986. The video also had longevity on the weekly chart, staying there for eight weeks. To put that in perspective, five other videos reached #1 on the top 20 countdown in 1986 and stayed there for eight weeks. All five made the top 40 in the year-end countdown, and one ranked #11. "Stuck With You" should be at least 60, maybe 70 spots higher. It's easily the most egregious error in the 1986 top 100.
And MTV knew they blew it. In 1987, they had a "Top 100 videos of All-Time" show, ranking all videos dating back to MTV's birth in 1981. "Stuck With You" ranked #15. You tell me how it makes sense that a video can be the 15th greatest of all time, and be only the 89th best video in a given year. The answer is that it makes no sense. Zero sense. Ah, but such is the twisted logic of MTV rankings.
The video was filmed in the Bahamas and was filled with entertaining moments. Per tradition, here we recognize five of them:
1) A befuddled Huey Lewis navigates a formal party where he is confronted by a mélange of odd characters. Notably, a laughing butler with a fuzzy bowtie who greets him in several different languages, concluding by drawling “you look marvelous”; the bearded Reginald Bixby, who opines about the difficulty of following up the “Sports” album with another success; and the gold-medallion wearing Freddy Baumstein of Atlanta, who claims to have been his former golf partner, and exclaims “Fore!” thus foreshadowing (“fore”-shadowing?) the new album’s title.
2) Huey’s courtship of the female lead, who later married Pierce Bronson in real life. She is a beautiful woman dressed in an elaborate all-white gown. He invites her for a ride on “my yacht”, which turns out to me a canoe with the moniker “Myott”. They row for awhile but eventually the canoe capsizes, and after a narrow escape from a shark they are washed up on an island and covered in seaweed. It is clear that he is “happy to be stuck with her”.
3) “The News” and their antics attempting to rescue the happy couple, including scuba diving in full tuxedos (while smoking a cigarette no less!) They also get some golf in, while Huey has a mishap on a coconut tree.
4) The band finally arrives at “Murray's Last Conch Luau”, a colorful party with elaborate costumes, beautiful girls in bikinis, and even a limbo contest. Too many crazy characters to mention at this event.
5) The happy couple is finally rescued and arrives at the luau. The madness ends with the band playing their instruments underwater, and Huey sitting back and relaxing in Myott as his sweetheart does all the rowing.
Before "Stuck With You" was released in the summer of 1986, it had been a little over a year since the band's last new single, "The Power Of Love". So fans were hungry for a new offering, and this song did not disappoint. A catchy ditty featuring classic harmonies, and lyrically exploring the universal theme of enduring long-term relationships.
Now...about this ranking. It's truly a crime to see this video way down at #89. Never mind, that it reached #1 on the weekly countdown, one of only 32 songs to do so in 1986. The video also had longevity on the weekly chart, staying there for eight weeks. To put that in perspective, five other videos reached #1 on the top 20 countdown in 1986 and stayed there for eight weeks. All five made the top 40 in the year-end countdown, and one ranked #11. "Stuck With You" should be at least 60, maybe 70 spots higher. It's easily the most egregious error in the 1986 top 100.
And MTV knew they blew it. In 1987, they had a "Top 100 videos of All-Time" show, ranking all videos dating back to MTV's birth in 1981. "Stuck With You" ranked #15. You tell me how it makes sense that a video can be the 15th greatest of all time, and be only the 89th best video in a given year. The answer is that it makes no sense. Zero sense. Ah, but such is the twisted logic of MTV rankings.
The video was filmed in the Bahamas and was filled with entertaining moments. Per tradition, here we recognize five of them:
1) A befuddled Huey Lewis navigates a formal party where he is confronted by a mélange of odd characters. Notably, a laughing butler with a fuzzy bowtie who greets him in several different languages, concluding by drawling “you look marvelous”; the bearded Reginald Bixby, who opines about the difficulty of following up the “Sports” album with another success; and the gold-medallion wearing Freddy Baumstein of Atlanta, who claims to have been his former golf partner, and exclaims “Fore!” thus foreshadowing (“fore”-shadowing?) the new album’s title.
2) Huey’s courtship of the female lead, who later married Pierce Bronson in real life. She is a beautiful woman dressed in an elaborate all-white gown. He invites her for a ride on “my yacht”, which turns out to me a canoe with the moniker “Myott”. They row for awhile but eventually the canoe capsizes, and after a narrow escape from a shark they are washed up on an island and covered in seaweed. It is clear that he is “happy to be stuck with her”.
3) “The News” and their antics attempting to rescue the happy couple, including scuba diving in full tuxedos (while smoking a cigarette no less!) They also get some golf in, while Huey has a mishap on a coconut tree.
4) The band finally arrives at “Murray's Last Conch Luau”, a colorful party with elaborate costumes, beautiful girls in bikinis, and even a limbo contest. Too many crazy characters to mention at this event.
5) The happy couple is finally rescued and arrives at the luau. The madness ends with the band playing their instruments underwater, and Huey sitting back and relaxing in Myott as his sweetheart does all the rowing.
Not the only time things got a little weird here on the list. Some more weird incongruencies to come.
ReplyDeleteYeah I know, but I honestly think this one is the capper. I know we have a few coming up that didn't make the top 20 weekly, but it's really hard to fathom this oversight. Especially since the band was an MTV favorite.
ReplyDelete*BENNY Baumstein
ReplyDelete