In honor of Huey Lewis & the News’ theme song for Pineapple Express, we’re looking back at two of the band’s finest movie moments.
Which 2000 film used "Hip to Be Square" in a killer scene?
Which 1985 film earned Lewis an Oscar nomination for cowriting "The Power of Love?"
Answers — and interesting trivia courtesy of Lewis himself— after the jump…
Huey Lewis says he okayed the use of "Hip to Be Square" in American Psycho (below) but got in a dispute over its inclusion on the film’s album. "They tried to pull a little showbiz thing on me, which left a bad taste in my mouth. Because of that, I’ve never seen [the movie]," he says. "People tell me it’s a really cool scene." (For the record, Lewis says the song is not a personal statement on the band, as suggested by the titular character Patrick Bateman: "The truth of the song is, I wrote it originally in the third person. ‘He used to be a renegade / he used to fool around / he couldn’t take the punishment and had to settle down.’ It was about a phenomenon that’s articulated much better in a book called Bobos in Paradise. The phenomenon where people from the ’60s started to drop back in, cut their hair, work out, that kind of crap, but they kept their bohemian tastes. And that’s why today, the ruling class are Bobos. They’re bourgeois bohemians. I thought it would be funnier in the first person, but I kinda mistold the joke a little bit and I think some people thought that, in fact, it was an anthem for square people.")
The filmmakers behind Back to the Future (below) imagined Huey Lewis & the News would be Marty McFly’s favorite band, and asked Lewis to record an original song for the picture. He said he’d just send them the next track the band wrote, and if it worked, great. He ended up earning an Academy Award nomination for "The Power of Love," but lost to Lionel Richie (White Nights‘ "Say You, Say Me.") Says Lewis, "I thought we were gonna win. What’s funny is, at the Oscars, Marvin Hamlisch turns around and goes, ‘Too bad, dude, you’re gonna get screwed … Lionel’s on the aisle."
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I love Huey Lewis & the News and watched the Live from Washington Fourth of July special just to see them perform
“Hip to Be Square” was used in American Psycho, during one of the funniest murder scenes ever recorded on film. The image of Christian Bale dancing around to this song as he explains why it’s so wonderful all while he dons his clear raincoat and grabs his ax is what always stand out in my mind when I think of that movie. And of course, “The Power of Love” was used in Back to the Future (I love you Marty McFly!) but for some reason, I never knew it had been nominated for an Academy Award. At least I learned something new today!
Wow first time I knew the answer, and it was to both of them (though power of love was very easy.)
Man, Pablo Cruise in Stepbrothers, Huey and the News in Pineapple Express?
Where’s the love for Eddie and the Tide, Starship and Night Ranger?
As much as i love ‘The Power of Love’ from Back to the Future (i swear that song pops into my head evrytime i skateboard down the street), my favorite Huey Lewis movie moment is from ‘Short Cuts’ when he stands up on a a rock, whips it out and pees into the river..
Oscar-caliber, if you ask me!…
Oh, how I love PopWatch for supporting my continued obsession of Huey Lewis. It all started when my dad flew Huey and the News from LA to SF and got an autograph for his 7 year old daughter. 24 years later, the love affair continues…
Huey Lewis is performing free at the Seaside Bandshell in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn on Thursday August 24 @ 8:00 PM! Be There!
Weren’t these in the latest print issue of Entertainment Weekly? I shouldn’t bother reading the magazine anymore, it’s all on the website anyway.
Completely agree – I’m not sure why I subscribe.
Oregon Dan, Knight Ranger had their revival when Sister Christian was featured in the excellent firecracker scene in Boogie Nights.
This makes me think of the Q&A I attended last year where someone asked Christian Bale if he would ever do a comedy and he said “American Psycho is a comedy.”
Back to the Future! Finally I know a NTMM!
Ooh, must be too easy if even I know the answer. It’s “American Psycho” and “Back to the Future,” right? Christian Bale has some pretty interesting ideas about comedy there, by the way…
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Tino, I remember that scene. I laughed when Marky Mark tried to pass off “You’ve got the Touch” from the animated Transformers movie, as his own song.
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