How This Hit Single Almost “Killed” the 1985 Movie It Was Featured in, Despite the Band’s Initial Objections

Huey Lewis and the News might’ve had hesitations about recording a song for a movie soundtrack. But the world didn’t seem to have any when it came to their reception of their made-for-film single. In fact, when the band first released “The Power Of Love” in mid-June 1985, it grew so large that the film crew worried it would eclipse their upcoming movie.

Videos by American Songwriter

Of course, if the band and filmmakers had a time-traveling DeLorean, they would have known that no one had anything to worry about.

Huey Lewis and the News Were Skeptical About This 1985 Film

The film in question is, of course, Back To The Future, which recounts the story of teenager Marty McFly traveling back in time (and back to the future) with his zany older pal, Emmett “Doc” Brown. Screenwriters Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale wrote Huey Lewis and the News into the film as McFly’s favorite band. This naturally led to the film crew reaching out to the West Coast rock band to see if they would record a song for the movie.

Frontman Lewis wasn’t sold on the idea, as he explained in a 2025 interview with The Guardian. “I said, ‘I’m flattered, but I don’t know how to write for film necessarily. And frankly, I don’t fancy writing a song called ‘Back To The Future’. They said, ‘No problem. We just want one of your songs.’ I said, ‘Tell you what. We’ll send you the next one we work on.’”

After sending a couple of versions back and forth, the band and the production team settled on a version of “The Power Of Love” that satisfied all parties. The song’s subsequent success seemed to surprise everyone involved, even the band that wrote it.

How This Hit Single Almost “Killed” ‘Back To The Future’

Huey Lewis and the News released “The Power Of Love” before Back To The Future had time to stake its claim at the box office. The rock track proved so successful that the filmmakers had concerns that the single would outperform the movie. “When we released ‘The Power Of Love’, it was the most added track on radio in its first week and on heavy rotation,” Lewis recalled to The Guardian. “The interesting thing is that the film holds the record for the shortest amount of time between the end of principal photography and the release of the film: nine weeks.”

“As ‘The Power Of Love’ raced up the charts,” Lewis continued, “the studio kept yelling at [Robert] Zemeckis: ‘Get the film out there! The song is killing it!’ And so the release date was brought forward. People forget that at that time, we actually had a higher profile than Michael J. Fox and Bob Zemeckis because we had hit records. The advantage to us was that this was our first really big international hit. The movie was so successful everywhere. It enabled us to tour Europe and other places.”

Indeed, “The Power Of Love” was a smash success for the band. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was their only Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom. Co-writer Chris Hayes recalled to The Guardian that he didn’t think Back To The Future had a chance when he first read the script. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘This doesn’t sound plausible or like it’s going to be good.’ And boy was I wrong!”

Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images