Eldergays: Tell Us about the Music of The Cars

Thank heaven for their totally tubular brand of techno pop following the murder of disco. I suppose the perps felt the gap would be filled with rock, but it was filled with richly orchestrated MOR adult contemporary instead.

Drive was the go to break up song on my Camaro tape deck.

Likes their first couple of post-punk albums. Then they offered horrible pop for the masses.

It doesn’t seem that great

I feel like they were New Wave for heterosexuals.

This song in the OP would not be the songs we'd have been into. Try earlier Cars. And no, everyone loved Paulina so no one was bothered by her presence and I think Drive is the only video she was in.

I owned their first album The Cars. Radio stations in New England gave them heavy play.

Great and underrated band.

A shame that they didn't make more albums.

OP, do you not have google?

Agree with r3. First two albums had a few great singles. Followed by a slide into commercial pop pablum.

That summer in Boston, FM radio played their debut LP over and over and over…

It took me about 30 years until I learned that most of the older Cars hits I liked most were sung by Benjamin Orr and not Ric Ocasek. I guess they sounded alike to me.

I only became aware of the group when I was 12 and “Heartbeat City” was released and Ocasek fronted most of the singles from that album.

Benjamin Orr was a dream boat and his vocals were just as good as Ocasek's. Here he is at Live Aid...

Ric Ocasek was UGLY. That is all.

Loved the earlier new wave tracks like 'Just What I Needed' and 'My Best Friend Girl'... their later stuff not so much.

'Heartbeat City', however, is one of my all time favourites - spun out, West Coast melancholic desolation.

I was a huge fan, and so was half of Boston. Their first three albums were so cutting edge at the time — borrowing from the semi-obscure Kraftwerk/“kraut rock” genre and giving it an American new wave rock sound for the masses. That debut (1978) with the girl with the huge red lips, gradually went 6x platinum in the US.

Here’s Moving In Stereo from that album.

Young Ric Ocasek:

Whatever happened to the girl in the You Might Think video?

First album is a new wave classic. They did turn into a synth pop MTV band later on, but still had a couple of great songs on every album.

R18, she vanished from the public eye soon after. Her name was Susan Gallagher. She seemed to have some comic flair along with a pretty face.

Early stuff was fine.

Benjamin Orr performing DRIVE at Live Aid

Loved this man's voice. This was one of their biggest hits and Ric Ocasek was not a fan.

Jealous much?

R20, what else she do? I can't find any other info on her

A rare picture of Susan G

Another rare shot of Susan G

Susan G smiling

Summer of '84. I was 14 and a CIT (counselor-in-training) at a Boy Scout camp. Two months away from my abusive father AND I didn't have to deliver papers (my 12-yo brother covered the route)? Sign me up! The paper route paid for my Walkman and my new cassette of "Heartbeat City." Probably the best summer of my life. The attached video is stupid (I was at that age when musical tastes are imprinted), but "Magic" was my favorite song, and I wore that tape out by the end of August.

Did Ric have Marfan syndrome? Do Marfan dudes have extra long cocks?

To me the Cars were a bridge between Rock n Roll and new wave. They were right around the popularity of Cheap Trick, Pat Benetar, The Police and Pretenders. Bands whose music could've been described as rock n roll, but were part of the new wave movement. The Cars were much more keyboard oriented so they had a different sound all-together.

My favorite track by The Cars is "All Mixed Up"

I wasn't any kind of fan and never bought one of their albums, nor did I ever think about attending one of their concerts. But their hit singles were fun and catchy, and I still remember all of those. To that end, they'd be the type of band I'd put in the "Greatest Hits" album category.

Why didn't they make a music video for the song Heartbeat City?

I saw them in 1982, and thought they were fantastic, but lost interest after Heartbeat City.

R33, thats awesome. Why'd you lose interest? Just wondering.

Listening to the Cars in the 80s spending summers in Evanston, Illinois. Heaven.

The music from the early- to mid-eighties was fucking spectacular.

I hear the Cars, and listeningto them now, I can almost smell the weed we’d be smoking while cruising our town’s main strip. The pulsating synths, the detached delivery of Ric Ocasek, the guitar solo of Just What I Needed… Fucking splendid.

I miss those aimless hours, simply appreciating music and savoring the cool night air with no tomorrow in sight.

R35 Which John Hughes movie is this?

R32 they did make a video for Heartbeat City - see link at R15

Good band. Sleek and a tad over-produced but fitting for their era.

Why did they break up?

Love them. Wish Ric hadn't become a jerk, but not sure what happened there.

Addendum - I loved their albums but The Cars were not great live performers, at least not at Worcester Centrum in '84. The sound was strong, but they just stood there and served up faithful live renditions of their studio tracks, one by one. Nothing interestingly different from what was on vinyl, and no interaction with the audience at all.

Another favorite - 1979, It's All I Can Do. So good!

How would you rank their albums from best to worst?

Why do people say that Ric Ocasek was ugly?

[quote]R18 Whatever happened to the girl in the You Might Think video?

[quote]R20 she vanished from the public eye soon after. Her name was Susan Gallagher. She seemed to have some comic flair along with a pretty face.

TRIVIA - she was only 5’3” tall

Very odd, for a model. But a short friend of mine who was signed to “Elite Petite” said that small girls are used a lot for lingerie and shoe ads.

I bought their first 2 albums when they came out and still listen to them. Ben Orr looked sexy in heavy eyeliner and rock-god get-ups, and he was a great singer. But Ric O. all the credit as the creative genius.

Later I found out what a tight band they were, from YouTube videos. They may not have had fireworks and "How ya doing, Akron!" in their shows, but they could do their entire repertoire live.

Who was the better singer: Ric or Ben?

Their music videos played nonstop in the 80s, but I never got into them.

[quote] Who was the better singer: Ric or Ben?

Ric said if the song was really good, he gave it to Ben. Ben was definitely the better singer.

Ric Ocasek wrote a song for Ben Orr after his death.

R27, I was also 14 in 1984. My big brother had all their albums, and I made cassette recordings of them, and also listened to them in my Walkman, also paid for by my paper route. How funny.

I also recall my brother playing them non-stop, and they were on the radio a lot where I grew up in Maine. Mainers loved them because they were a 'local band' from nearby Boston.

My brother and his friends used to race stock cars down at the track every Saturday. He would throw me in the backseat of his GTO, pop in a cassette of a Cars album, and we would head out to the raceway. On the way home, also listening to The Cars, we'd get pizza. This was a ritual for a year or so, but very formative.

The Cars won the very first MTV VMA for video of the year in 1984. :

Ric Ocasic was a mean nasty dick

R34 - Their sound changed; they went from rock to adult contemporary if that makes any sense.

I LOVE "You Might Think."

I gave up after Panorama.

They used to play the Rexicana in my hometown before they were famous.

Why didn't they make a video for the song Heartbeat City?

DRIVE

‘Shake It Up” was one of the greatest songs of the early 80’s for sure.

This was the first song I ever heard from them. Yeah, MTV introduced me to many, many acts.

In 1978& 1979," Let the Good Times Roll" by The Cars was the graduating class anthem of every other High school class in America.

Plus, we had t-shirts!!

R59, I was just at a family wedding and the DJ played Shake It Up. The 55 - 65 crowd swarmed the dance floor. It was fun and it is a great song to dance to.

I like their songs Just What I Needed and The Dangerous Type.

Meh.

Yeah he was R53, cutting Paulina out of his will like that.

Though I do love this song. Is Warwick Davis going to pop up?

Why did they break up? I wish that they had made more albums.

Ric was an underrated hottie

^^^He was talented& made a shitload of money^^^

Maybe Paulina found him Charming!! Maybe he crushed her supermodel pussy!!

They were fun and pretty good overall - ranging from straight ahead, if not "heavy," rock to synthy new wave and pop. A lot of good stuff.

Touch and Go

Pawleeena es gold deeper and low klass compear to me and me poosey.

I always preferred the music "cars" by Gary Newman

Candy-O was one of the big albums of my high school freshman year in 1980. We played it on repeat constantly. But we were also very concerned about the photos on the back of the album jacket showing Rik Ocasek with an earring in his RIGHT ear. Surely he wasn't... *gasp*... a fag?? We couldn't be caught listening to gay music! This was a monumental topic in our 14 and 15 year old worlds. Eventually we hand-waved it away with vague explanations about transposed photos and the earring code being different in the eastern U.S.

This is bringing back so many memories. Think I'll download the album today. Thanks, OP.

R73 I remember that same dialogue about the "right side earring" being gay code, and was also a teenager when that came out. How funny.

It's pretty meta that we're being asked to opine as ElderGays on music that itself was retro inspired at the time. Anyone wanna talk about Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis?