“Pineapple Express” is all hand claps, alto sax and the familiar voice of Lewis himself. And when Lewis gleefully sings the beautifully simple chorus—“How did we get into this mess?/Pineapple Express!”—it is difficult not to smile and be transported back to a time when life was much simpler. At the same time, the track reminds one why Huey Lewis and the News were so ubiquitous during the 1980s: the band was able to write incredibly catchy pop songs. To this day, I still find myself humming such songs as “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” “Heart and Soul,” and “I Want a New Drug.” What is perhaps most remarkable is that all three of these songs were released on the same album, 1983’s Sports, a record that I’m pretty sure every American alive during the 1980s owned a copy of.
