Huey Lewis & The News | Through the Shattered Lens

Happy Halloween!

Early this year I started trying to figure out videos I could do for October. I didn’t think I was going to be able to come close to filling 31 days. But I did know that I could fill one day. And that’s today with the nearly 8 minute horror-themed video for Doing It All For My Baby by Huey Lewis & The News. Unfortunately, I am in no position to write about this the way I wanted to at the moment. I’m sorry.

Let me include the entry from Wikipedia that covers who to look for:

The music video for “Doing It All for My Baby” was a parody of monster movies and was over 7 minutes long. Huey appears as himself, the Dr. Frankenstein character, and the singing monster. Dracula is portrayed by bass player Mario Cippolina, who is shown placing his own disembodied head in a jar on a table (the camera then pans along the table to show the jarred heads of the rest of the News, echoing the buried-in-the-sand scene of their “If This Is It” video). Mario also appears as half of the two-headed creature with drummer Bill Gibson. Igor is played by keyboarder Sean Hopper. The Tower of Power horn section (Greg Adams, Lee Thornburg, Richard Elliot, Emilio Castillo and Stephen Kupka) is shown chained to the back wall playing their horns while Frankenstein/Huey sings into a steaming test tube. The video ends with Igor foolishly throwing a large switch, turning the singing monster back into Huey and the bride of Frankenstein’s monster screaming in horror.

I’ll rattle off some other things too look for as well:

The Mystery Machine
The News accidentally killing Huey.
The News deciding that a dead Huey Lewis isn’t anything to cry over, and moving on.
The Wizard Of Oz sock.
The zombie that gets bonked on the head like at least one does in Lucio Fulci’s Zombie (1979)
The sign: Mill Valley is a place Huey grew up. The bar on the cover of Sports is in Mill Valley. This year Huey went back there to perform. And the year before this video, 1986, they performed in Frankfurt.
The bird.
Notice that they somehow get Huey out from under the car with no explanation after two failed attempts to pull him out, and almost sawing off his leg.
The joke about Dracula recognizing them because of course their bass player dressed as Dracula would recognize the band he’s a part of.
The decapitation of The News, and the fact that more than just their heads being cut clean off must have happened judging by the state of their faces.
Doc Brown as Dr. Frankenstein.
The horn section from Tower Of Power chained to the wall.
Don’t try to be Jimi Hendrix if you wear dentures.
There are easier ways to plug in an electric guitar than an electric chair.
Finally, the reference to the “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” episode of The Twilight Zone when Bride Of Frankenstein screams at the sight of Huey Lewis as himself.

Enjoy!

I did Friday Night by The Darkness yesterday, so here’s the music video that I have no doubt they had in mind when making Friday Night.

If you recognize the director, then it is probably from Cyndi Lauper videos like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

If you recognize the woman who gets stranded with Huey, then you probably know her because she is married to Pierce Brosnan. That’s Keely Shaye Brosnan or Keely Shaye Smith depending on how she gets credited on something. She was also a correspondent on Unsolved Mysteries back in the 1990s.

If you recognize the name Susan R. Feldott, the production manager, then you must have been in the business.

If you recognize the shark, then these posts are useless. Yes, Edd Griles also directed the video for If This Is It by Huey Lewis & The News. That’s the music video where a Sand Shark goes after a family at the end. They were obviously making fun of that here.

Enjoy!