| "I Want a New Drug" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Huey Lewis and the News | ||||
| from the album Sports | ||||
| B-side | "Finally Found a Home" | |||
| Released | 1984 | |||
| Format | 7", 12" | |||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Length | 4:46 (album version) 3:29 (single edit) 5:32 (12" dance mix) |
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| Label | Chrysalis | |||
| Writer(s) | Chris Hayes, Huey Lewis | |||
| Producer | Huey Lewis and the News | |||
| Certification | Gold (RIAA)[1] | |||
| Huey Lewis and the News singles chronology | ||||
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"I Want a New Drug" is a song by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News from their third album Sports. It was released as the second single from the album, following the top-ten hit "Heart and Soul" in January 1984. The single reached number six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Dance Club Play chart.
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According to Lewis, he wrote the song in only a few minutes. "I just woke up one morning after a long party and just wrote NEW DRUG. I was on the way to my attorney's house and I thought of it in the car. I pulled up and walked in. I said, 'Bob, give me a piece of paper, I've got to write this down'."[2]
When the similarities between this song and the theme song of the 1984 film Ghostbusters were heard, Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker Jr. for plagiarism, claiming that Parker had stolen the melody from "I Want a New Drug". Lewis had been approached to compose the main theme song for the film, but had to decline because of his work on the soundtrack for Back to the Future. The producers of the film allegedly then hired Ray Parker and asked him to write a theme that sounded like "I Want a New Drug".
In 2001, in an interview on VH1's Behind the Music, Lewis mentioned the suit. This allegedly breached a confidentiality agreement in the aftermath of the first suit, and led to a countersuit by Parker.
The scene where Huey dunked his face into a sink filled with ice cold water, apparently took over 40 takes to perfect. Lewis joked, "Needless to say, by the end my eyeballs were freezing!"[2]
| Chart (1984) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Kent Report | 27 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[3] | 6 |
| U.S. Billboard Top Rock Tracks | 7 |
| U.S. Billboard Dance Club Play | 1 |
The song has been covered by:
The song was parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic as "I Want a New Duck" on his 1985 album, Dare to be Stupid.
| Preceded by "Give Me Tonight" by Shannon |
Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number-one
single April 14, 1984 |
Succeeded by "They Only Come Out at Night" by Peter Brown |
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