The Heart Of Rock And Roll

Written by Huey Lewis along with the band's guitarist/horn player Johnny Colla, this is another fun, well-crafted hit song for the Huey Lewis & the News, one of their 12 US Top 10 hits in the '80s. It's about how rock music is alive and well all over the United States, similar in style to the Motown classic "Dancing in the Street," which also features powerful horns and shout-outs to lots of cities.

Cleveland was the city that inspired this song. In 2013, Lewis told Billboard: "'The Heart of Rock & Roll' was written driving out of Cleveland. We'd heard that Cleveland was this great rock and roll town, and we're from San Francisco - how can Cleveland be anything? We went to play the Agora Ballroom and had this amazing gig. On the bus out of town I was looking at the skyline of Cleveland and I said, 'You know what boys? The heart of rock and roll really is in Cleveland. Hey, that's a pretty good song title.' Later I thought it through and went, 'The heart of rock and roll is still beating.' The idea is that, although the music business is in New York and LA, good rock and roll is where you find it." Cleveland had a rich rock history with a claim to the first rock concert. It's also where the DJ Alan Freed popularized the phrase "rock and roll," but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame didn't open there until 1995, 12 years after this song was released.

Different versions of this song were sent to radio stations with nearby cities inserted into the lyrics. For instance, if you lived in New Mexico, you might hear Huey mention that the Heart of Rock n' Roll is beating in Santa Fe. This geotargeting was very effective in an age when pop radio airplay was largely responsible for sales. The local cities were mentioned near the end, so you would listen through the whole song to hear it.