Old-Time Rock ‘n’ Roll:
How The 1980s Embraced 1950s and 1960s Oldies Music
Huey Lewis and The News go Back to the Future
Huey Lewis and the News combined many essential 1980s music elements such as loud rocking guitars, keyboards, and catchy lyrics with doo-wop harmonies, blues, and horns. Bad is Bad
and If This is It
from their hit Sports album are prime examples of combining eighties sound with pieces from 1950s and 1960s rock ‘n’ roll. In an 2013 interview, Huey Lewis said of their song Bad is Bad,
The cake was built with technology, but the icing was always older styles and instruments.
It’s fitting that Huey Lewis and the News contributed to the soundtrack Back to the Future.
Photo: "Delorian at EuskalEncounter" by Mario A. P. is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The 1985 movie Back to the Future, one of the decade’s mega blockbusters, is a science fiction comedy about seventeen year old Marty McFly’s 1985 to 1955 time travel adventure. During his adventure, Marty inadvertently gets stuck in 1955. Adding to this dilemma, McFly messes up his parents developing relationship, which threatens his existence. The soundtrack is a mix of 1980s rock and 1950s tunes. Huey Lewis and the News had the soundtrack’s big hit with Power of Love.
However, the movie and the soundtrack highlight the big hits of the mid fifties, yet takes some liberties with music history. The Four Ace’s version of Mr. Sandman
plays during Marty’s introduction to 1955 Hill Valley’s active and vibrant downtown. Etta James The Wallflower (Dance with Me Henry)
plays in Holt’s Diner while the skateboard chase occurs. The 12 November 1955 Enchantment Under the Sea school dance scene opens up with the 1952 hit Night Train
being played by the fictional band Marvin Berry and the Starlights. After Marvin injures his hand rescuing Marty McFly from a locked car trunk, he declares he can’t play guitar and the dance is over. In order to ensure the dance continues so his parents may have their first kiss, Marty fills in as the band’s guitarist, playing a dysfunctional version of Earth Angel
The band concludes their show with a future hit by Marvin’s supposed cousin Chuck Berry. Dance attendees get a glimpse of future music history by hearing Johnie B. Goode
, a song released in 1958. Getting caught up in the music but forgetting he’s in 1955, Marty McFly goes into a 1980s guitar solo, which confuses the students, as well as his band-mates. Marty ends the show by assuring the audience their kids will enjoy that kind of music.
A sequel was released in 1989, and recycled some of the 1955 scenes from the first movie. The success of Back to the Future led to the release of Peggy Sue Got Married, a film in which Peggy Sue, played by Kathleen Turner, finds herself back in 1961, and has a chance to void her marriage to her no-good husband, played by Nicholas Cage. Like Back to the Future, oldies music adds to Peggy Sue’s flashback to the past.