Johnny Colla | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | John Victor Colla |
Born | Sacramento, California, United States | July 2, 1952
Genres | Rock |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Guitar, saxophone, vocals |
John Victor Colla is an American musician (playing the guitar and saxophone), [1] singer and songwriter. He is a founding member of the American rock band Huey Lewis and the News. He has been heavily involved in the San Francisco Bay Area music scene for decades, having been in several other bands, including Rubicon, Sly and the Family Stone, Van Morrison, Sound Hole, and Johnny Colla & The Lucky Devils. [2] Colla has two children, Allison Colla and Ryan Colla.
The first bands that Colla was involved with from Fairfield, California, were The Furlanders, The Yewess Army and Cottonmouth. [2] In the early 1970s, he moved to Marin County, California and joined Sound Hole as a singer and saxophonist. Sound Hole was successful at a local level and became Van Morrison's backing band for a time. Other members of Sound Hole were drummer Bill Gibson and bassist Mario Cipollina, who also eventually joined with Huey and The News. Sound Hole was the major local competition to Huey's band Clover. After Sound Hole, Colla was enlisted as sax man/arranger with Sly and the Family Stone, recording and touring with Sly for a few years. In the late 1970s, Sound Hole and Clover alumni merged to form a new group, the American Express, which later became known as Huey Lewis and the News. For the News, Colla became saxophonist, rhythm guitarist, backing singer and songwriter.
Colla was drawn to San Francisco from the Sacramento Valley during the 1960s Summer of Love. Like many others, Colla patronized the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium.
"I moved to Marin because that's where all the musicians moved after the San Francisco scene blew up. For a start-up musician in the 1970s, it was a hot-bed of musical activity; a great place to be and be heard." He says. "Then I beat the odds. We not only started a great band, but actually became successful at it!"
Colla co-wrote hit songs such as "The Heart of Rock & Roll", "If This Is It", "The Power of Love", and "Back in Time". Lewis and Colla co-produced the band's albums Plan B (2001) and Weather (2020).
Colla embarked upon a solo career, releasing his first solo album Lucky Devil in the mid 1990s. He released his second solo album, I Hear Voices, in 2012, [3] which takes a more vocal approach than Lucky Devil.
Colla also produced or performed on these records:
Huey Lewis and the News is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually achieving 19 top ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary, and Mainstream Rock charts. Their sound draws upon earlier pop, rhythm & blues and doo-wop artists, and their own material has been labeled as blue-eyed soul, new wave, power pop, and roots rock.
Picture This is the second album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1982. The album brought the band their first top-ten hit, "Do You Believe in Love". It remained on the Billboard albums chart for 35 weeks and peaked at number 7.
Hugh Anthony Cregg III, known professionally as Huey Lewis, is an American singer, songwriter and actor.
Huey Lewis and the News is the debut album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1980.
Sports is the third album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released on September 15, 1983, by Chrysalis Records. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 on June 30, 1984, and ultimately charted for 160 weeks. Sports was ranked No. 2 on the Billboard year-end album chart for 1984 and spawned four top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Heart and Soul" and "The Heart of Rock & Roll" earning Grammy Award nominations. Sports also did very well internationally, where most of its singles charted in the top 40 in multiple countries. The album has been certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA.
Small World is the fifth album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1988. It was also their last album release on Chrysalis Records in the USA.
Hard at Play is the sixth album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News. It was released in 1991 on EMI for most of the world and Chrysalis in the UK. Hard at Play peaked at number 27 on the Billboard 200 pop albums chart and produced two top 40 singles, "Couple Days Off" and "It Hit Me Like a Hammer." Music videos were released for "It Hit Me like a Hammer," "Couple Days Off," and "He Don't Know."
Four Chords & Several Years Ago is the seventh album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1994. The title is a play on the first sentence in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Plan B is the eighth studio album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 2001.
Time Flies is a greatest hits album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1996. The album also features four previously unreleased tracks. This marks the first time "The Power of Love" was available on an International Huey Lewis and the News album. The song "So Little Kindness" was later included on the 2001 album Plan B as Lewis felt it needed a second chance. The song "100 Years from Now" was originally conceived for a planned Huey Lewis solo album that was later cancelled.
Heard Ya Missed Me, Well I'm Back is the eighth studio album by American funk/soul/rock band Sly and the Family Stone, released by Epic/CBS Records in 1976. This album is an effort to return the idea of the "Family Stone" band to singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone's work, after his previous album, High on You, was released without the Family Stone name. It also reflects the beginnings of change in the concept of "Sly and the Family Stone". The original Family Stone had broken up in 1975, and a new Family Stone was assembled for this album: the only holdover is stalwart Family Stone trumpet player Cynthia Robinson. Vet Stone and Elva Mouton, both formerly members of Family Stone backing band Little Sister, are credited as providing "additional background vocals", and John Colla is credited as providing "alto and soprano saxes, vocals". Colla would go on to become a founding member and integral part of "Huey Lewis and The News", both producing and penning such hits as "Heart of Rock & Roll", "Power of Love", and "If This Is It".
"The Power of Love" is a 1985 single by Huey Lewis and the News, written for the soundtrack of the 1985 blockbuster film Back to the Future. The song became the band's first number-one hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and their second number-one hit on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. In the United Kingdom, it was released as a double-A side with "Do You Believe in Love," becoming the band's only top ten hit on the UK Singles Chart. The song is included alongside "Back in Time" on the film's soundtrack, and appears as a bonus track on international editions of the band's fourth studio album, Fore!
Rubicon was a California funk rock band, whose "I'm Gonna Take Care of Everything" spent 11 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978, peaking at number 28.
Anders Osborne is an American singer-songwriter. He tours solo and with a band, and often plays in North Mississippi Osborne (N.M.O), a group formed by Osborne and North Mississippi Allstars.
Live at 25 is a live album by Huey Lewis and the News celebrating the 25-year anniversary since the band's formation in 1979. The performance was recorded in December 2004 at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California. The album was released along with a separate DVD in 2005 by Rhino Records. This was the last album the band made with saxophonist Ron Stallings, who died in 2009.
Miyuki Nakajima is the eponymous album by the Japanese singer-songwriter Miyuki Nakajima, released in March 1988.
"Doing It All for My Baby" is a song performed by Huey Lewis and the News, released as a single from the album Fore! in 1987. The single peaked at number six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on September 19, 1987, becoming the fifth top-ten hit from the album and making the band the first group to have five top-ten Hot 100 singles from one album.
"The Heart of Rock & Roll" is a song performed by Huey Lewis and the News, released as the third single from their 1983 album Sports in 1984. The single peaked at number six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
The Rose of England is an album by British singer-songwriter Nick Lowe, released in 1985. It is the second overall and last album by Lowe's band the Cowboy Outfit, credited as 'Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit'. It contains three cover versions; "7 Nights to Rock", "I Knew the Bride" and "Bo Bo Skediddle".
Soulsville is the ninth studio album from Huey Lewis and the News and the band's first since Plan B in 2001. The album was released on October 18, 2010, in the United Kingdom and Europe and November 2, 2010, in the United States. The album, a tribute to the artists and music of Stax Records, was the brainchild of the band's manager, Bob Brown. As lead singer Huey Lewis explained, "the public isn't clamoring for new Huey Lewis & the News material". Brown and the band decided "it would be cooler to go into the [Stax] catalog a little deeper and find songs that people hadn't heard and capture them faithfully". This album features new guitarists Stef Burns and Bill Hinds and baritone saxophonist Johnnie Bamont, replacing Chris Hayes and the late Ron Stallings.