"Jacob's Ladder" was originally meant for a Bruce Hornsby album that Huey Lewis was producing.[5] Hornsby did not like the arrangement his band played, and it was given to Lewis.[5]
"Doing It All for My Baby" was written by Mike Duke and Phil Cody. Duke wrote the song and then recorded vocals himself (the band playing backing parts and instruments), with the intention of getting a record contract for his own solo career.[6] When that plan fell through, Lewis decided to record a version with his own vocals for the album.[6]
Lewis stated he originally wrote the lyrics for "Hip to Be Square" in a third person perspective, "He used to be a renegade..."[7] He referenced the book Bobos in Paradise in describing the song's inspiration, explaining that the song was about the "phenomenon where people from the '60s started to drop back in, cut their hair, work out, that kind of crap, but they kept their bohemian tastes. ... bourgeois bohemians." Lewis later modified the lyrics to be in the first person as he believed it would enhance the joke, but stated this had unintentionally led to the interpretation of the song as an "anthem for square people".[7][8]
According to Lewis, the album track "Forest for the Trees" was written for and about kids struggling with life issues as an uplifting message for them.[9] Lewis based it off the letters he received from young fans at the time who would talk about how important his music was to them.[9]
"The Power of Love", originally from the soundtrack of the 1985 film Back to the Future, is included as a bonus track on international editions of the album. The song was the band's first chart-topper on the Billboard Hot 100. The critical reception of the album was mixed with Glenn O'Brien in Spin noting that 'what saves it for me is that songs are good songs. And Huey still sings with heart and soul'.[10]
Album cover
The wall that Lewis and the members of the band stand against on the album's cover is a wall from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. Band members Bill Gibson, Sean Hopper and Mario Cipollina went to this school together.[citation needed]
In popular culture
The album is referenced in the film American Psycho. The main character Patrick Bateman, while talking to one of his potential victims, gives a review of the album, discussing the band's viewpoint, intent, and how specifically the song "Hip to Be Square" espouses "the pleasures of conformity" but with a catchy 1980s beat, going on to state it is "the group's most accomplished album".
^"Billboard". books.google.com. November 15, 1986. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
^Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 263. ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
