Huey Lewis (born Hugh Anthony Cregg III; July 5, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter and occasional actor. He sings lead vocals and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs. The band is perhaps best known in American popular culture for their third album Sports and their contribution to the soundtrack of the 1985 feature film Back to the Future. Huey Lewis also played with the band Clover from 1972 to 1979.

Lewis was born in New York City. His father was an Irish American from Boston and his mother, Magda Cregg, was a Polish refugee[1][2] and the girlfriend of poet Lew Welch.[citation needed] His maternal grandfather had gained some success as the inventor of the red wax protective sealant used on certain varieties of cheese.

Lewis was raised in Marin County, California, attending Strawberry Point Elementary School (where he skipped second grade) and Edna Maguire Junior High School in Mill Valley. When he was 13, his parents divorced and he attended and later graduated from the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, in 1967, where he achieved a perfect score of 800 on the math portion of the SAT.[3] Lewis applied to and was accepted by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In an interview with David Letterman,[4] Lewis talked about hitchhiking across the country to New York and how he learned to play the harmonica while waiting for rides. He talked about hanging out at the airport for three days until he stowed away on a plane to Europe. In Madrid, Spain, Lewis became an accomplished blues player and he hitchhiked around and supported himself by busking with his harmonica. He gave his first concerts in Madrid, earning enough money to buy a plane ticket back to the USA.

On his return, Lewis entered Cornell University, joining the engineering program. While there, he made friends with Lance and Larry Hoppen, who later played with Orleans and Eddie Tuleja of King Harvest. Initially an active student and a member of the fraternity Eta Lambda Nu, Lewis soon lost interest in college. He signed up with a band called Slippery Elm, and in December 1969, during his junior year, he dropped out of Cornell and moved back to the San Francisco area. His aim was to continue playing music, but along the way he also tried other fields of work, including landscaping, carpentry and natural foods.