Huey Lewis Too Hip to Be "Psycho"
AP Wire News
Wednesday April 12, 2000 - Apparently, Huey Lewis doesn't think he's too hip to be scared.
The '80s pop-rocker has yanked his 1986 hit "Hip to Be Square" from the new soundtrack to American Psycho, but not because of the film's graphic violence, his manager insists.
Soundtrack distributor Koch Records announced this week it had recalled some 100,000 copies of the disc, saying Lewis objected to the slash-'em-up scenes in Christian Bale's controversial new flick (which comes out Friday).
"As a result of the violent nature of the film, Huey Lewis' management decided not to give soundtrack clearance," Koch Records president Bob Frank says. "Fortunately, we caught it in time to minimize the recall." (The album was recalled the day before its scheduled April 4 release.) But Bob Brown, manager for Huey Lewis and the News, disputes Koch's tale of the frightened frontman. He claims Huey never even saw the film--and only agreed to have the song used in the movie, not on a soundtrack.
Anyway, new versions of the soundtrack--featuring the likes of New Order, the Cure and Eric B. and Rakim--were expected to arrive in stores starting Tuesday. But the company already had shipped copies to stores in the U.S. and Canada--not to mention handing out promo discs to the media and for radio station giveaways (soon-to-be overpriced collectibles on eBay). Presumably, all copies of the "Hip" version of the soundtrack will be destroyed.
The upbeat ditty--which features several San Francisco 49ers on backup vocals (yes, we're ashamed we know that) and originally was a cut off Lewis' Fore album--appears during a memorable Psycho scene when Bale's character delightfully hacks up one of his costars.
Back to the Future it's not. Lewis' group, also featured prominently in Bret Easton Ellis' original (and bloodier) 1991 novel, reluctantly allowed the song to be used in the film, Brown says. But he said they were clueless about a soundtrack until ads for the disc began appearing in trade magazines.
"We knew nothing about a soundtrack album. They just went ahead and put the cut on there," Brown said. "I think what they're trying to do is just drum up publicity for themselves."
Of course, Psycho has faced enough controversy already--first from groups who feared the story would be too violent for the big screen, and next from the Motion Picture Association of America, which forced director Mary Harron to chop out a sex scene to avoid an NC-17 rating. But early reviews have raved about the film, saying it could even be an Oscar contender.
Reps for Lions Gate Films, which is releasing the movie, say they were disappointed by Lewis' decision, but added that it won't affect the film directly. "The song is in the movie, and it works wonderfully in a very funny scene," says Tom Ortenberg, Lions Gate copresident. "I think he knew what he was getting, but if Huey does or doesn't want it in the soundtrack, that's fine with us."
