I Want a New Drug

In January 1984 Huey Lewis and the News followed their top-ten hit "Heart and Soul" with a second single from their third album, Sports. "I Want a New Drug" reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot Dance Club Play chart. Lewis said he wrote it in a few minutes. He drove to his attorney's office and told him, "Bob, give me a pen and paper!"

Lewis insisted it was a love song. The word drug was left open-ended on purpose. He said it was not a pro-drug song or really even an anti-drug one. The album version has two long guitar solos, and he called the riff at the end a tip of the hat to Jimi Hendrix, whose "Purple Haze" had influenced the recording. The single edit drops the first solo and ends on a sustained chord. That version went into the video. It follows Lewis waking up late and racing across San Francisco by convertible, ferry and chartered helicopter to make a concert. The band chose that day-in-the-life idea to avoid a literal reading of the lyrics.

The song also led to a lawsuit. When Ray Parker Jr. released the Ghostbusters theme, Lewis sued him and Columbia Pictures, claiming the melody came from "I Want a New Drug". The parties settled out of court. Lewis discussed the payment on VH1's Behind the Music in 2001, and Parker sued him for breaching confidentiality.