Visiting the 14 Cities of “The Heart of Rock & Roll”

Cities Huey Lewis

Like many of us, Mike Feld is a fan of Huey Lewis and the News. But Feld did something creative with his love of the band by visiting each of the fourteen cities that Lewis name checks in “The Heart of Rock & Roll.” Feld also takes us along for the ride in a new video he made.

Feld explains that he started out on the journey to see what connected those cities in a way that Lewis would list them in his song. And so Feld set out to travel “10,484 miles on 11 planes. 636 miles on 4 trains. 962 miles in 5 rental cars.”

Check out Feld’s version of the song where he helps prove “the heart of rock & roll is indeed still alive and beating.”

“The Heart of Rock & Roll” appeared on the 1984 Huey Lewis and the News album Sports. The lyrics “the heart of rock and roll is still beating” developed from a comment Lewis made after the band had performed in Cleveland. On the tour bus, Lewis noted, “You know, the the heart of rock and roll really is in Cleveland.” From that comment, the song developed as a tribute to great rock and roll cities. But in the evolution, Cleveland ended up with a brief mention despite the fact that the city provided the original inspiration for the song.

On tour, though, the band often altered lyrics to highlight the name of the town where they were performing. The heart of rock and roll is wherever you make it.

Fianlly, if you wonder what Huey Lewis thinks of Feld’s version of “The Heart of Rock & Roll,” he answered that question with a tweet.


Leave your two cents in the comments.

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  • Author: chimesfreedom

    Editor-in-chief, New York.

    2 thoughts on “Visiting the 14 Cities of “The Heart of Rock & Roll””

      1. Good point about “Liberty Town” being slang for Philadelphia, but Huey Lewis is correct in his Tweet that there are fourteen cities mentioned, and I guess he should know. The fourteen includes Philadelphia.

        The fourteen cities are: New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, San Antonio, Philadelphia (“Liberty Town”), Boston, Baton Rouge, Tulsa, Austin, Oklahoma City, Seattle, San Francisco, Cleveland, and Detroit.

        Thanks for the comment!

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