Small World is the fifth studio album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1988. It was the band's last album release on Chrysalis Records in the United States. Huey Lewis stated in a Behind the Music interview that the recording process for Small World had the most favorable working conditions compared to previous albums.
Small World peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Recording
The album track "Slammin'" was written for the purpose of being used for highlights for the San Francisco 49ers NFL football team, which the band and especially Lewis are big fans of. "We thought it'd be a cool idea to have an instrumental on the record. Very old school," Lewis recalled. Lewis joked that the song should've just been called "49er Highlights". The team used the song for game highlights.
Track listing
Personnel
Huey Lewis and the News
- Huey Lewis – lead vocals, harmonica
- Johnny Colla – guitar, saxophone, backing vocals
- Chris Hayes – guitar, backing vocals
- Mario Cipollina – bass
- Sean Hopper – keyboards, backing vocals
- Bill Gibson – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Additional personnel
- The Tower of Power Horns – horns (1, 3, 5, 9, 10):
- Emilio Castillo – tenor saxophone
- Steve Grove – tenor saxophone
- Stephen "Doc" Kupka – baritone saxophone
- Greg Adams – trumpet, horn arrangements
- Lee Thornburg – trumpet
- Bruce Hornsby – accordion (2), backing vocals (2)
- Peter Michael – percussion (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10)
- Stan Getz – tenor saxophone (1, 5)
- Ralph Arista – backing vocals (4, 6)
- Michael Duke – backing vocals (4, 7)
- Jerome Fletcher – backing vocals (4)
- Joel Jaffe – backing vocals (4)
- Jim Moran – backing vocals (4, 6)
- David Tolmie – backing vocals (4)
- Dwight Clark – backing vocals (6)
- Riki Ellison – backing vocals (6)
- Ronnie Lott – backing vocals (6)
- Joe Montana – backing vocals (6)
- Jim "Watts" Vereecke – backing vocals (6)
- David Fredericks – backing vocals (7)
Production
- Huey Lewis and the News – producers
- Bob Brown – executive producer
- Robert Missbach – engineer, mixing
- Jeffrey "Nik" Norman – additional engineer
- Michael Rosen – assistant engineer
- Tom Size – assistant engineer
- Jim "Watts" Vereecke – assistant engineer
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
- Ralph Arista – guitar technician
- Jerry Daniels – keyboard technician
- Carl Ciasulli – drum technician
- Craig Frazier – art direction, design
- Jock McDonald – photography
- Roger Ressmeyer – cover photography
- Chris Welch – liner notes
Studios
- Recorded at Studio D Recording (Sausalito, California).
- Mixed at Fantasy Studios (Berkeley, California).
- Mastered at Masterdisk (New York, New York).
Charts
Weekly charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!scope="col"|Chart (1988)
!scope="col"|Peak<br /> position
|-
!scope="row"|Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
| 21
|-
!scope="row"|Belgian Albums (BEA)
| 4
|-
!scope="row"|Canadian Albums (RPM)
| 7
|-
|-
!scope="row"|European Top 100 Albums
| 11
|-
!scope="row"|Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)
| 5
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Icelandic Albums (Tónlist)
| 9
|-
!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| 17
|-
!scope="row"|Japanese International Albums (Oricon)
| 1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums (OCC)
| 12
|-
!scope="row"|US Billboard 200
| 11
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!Chart (1988)
!Position
|-
|align="left"|Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)
|43
|-
|align="left"|US Billboard 200
|88
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Single
!Chart
!Position
|-
|rowspan="6"|1988
|rowspan="3"|"Perfect World"
|Billboard Hot 100
|align="center"|3
|-
|Adult Contemporary
|align="center"|2
|-
|Album Rock Tracks
|align="center"|5
|-
|rowspan="3"|"Small World, Pt. 1"
|Billboard Hot 100
|align="center"|25
|-
|Adult Contemporary
|align="center"|19
|-
|Album Rock Tracks
|align="center"|28
|-
|1989
|"Give Me the Keys (And I'll Drive You Crazy)"
|Billboard Hot 100
|align="center"|47
|-
|}