The Cars
The Cars
The Cars are an American rock band that emerged from the fresh wave scene in the late 1970s. The band originated in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1976, with singer, rhythm guitarist and songwriter Ric Ocasek, singer and bassist Benjamin Orr, lead guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson.
The Cars were at the forefront in merging 1970s guitar-oriented rock with the fresh synthesizer-oriented pop that was then becoming popular and which would flourish in the early 1980s. Robert Palmer, music critic for The Fresh York Times and Rolling Stone, described the Cars’ musical style by telling: “they have taken some significant but disparate contemporary trends—punk minimalism, the labyrinthine synthesizer and guitar textures of art rock, the ’50s rockabilly revival and the melodious terseness of power pop—and mixed them into a individual and appealing blend.” [1]
The Cars were named “Best Fresh Artist” in the one thousand nine hundred seventy eight Rolling Stone Readers’ Poll and won “Movie of the Year” for “You Might Think” at the very first MTV Movie Music Awards in 1984. Their debut album, The Cars, sold six million copies and appeared on the Billboard two hundred album chart for one hundred thirty nine weeks. As of 2001, the Cars have sold over twenty three million albums in the United States.
The band broke up in 1988, and Ocasek later discouraged talk of a reunion. [Two] Orr died in two thousand from pancreatic cancer. In 2005, Easton and Hawkes joined with Todd Rundgren to form a spin-off band, the Fresh Cars, which performed classic Cars and Rundgren songs alongside fresh material. The original surviving members reunited in two thousand ten to record a fresh album, Stir Like This, which was released in May 2011, followed by a brief tour. [Three] In 2015, they were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Contents
Early years Edit
Before the Cars, members of the band performed together in several different incarnations. Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr met in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960s after Ocasek eyed Orr performing with his band the Grasshoppers on the Big five Showcase, a local musical multiplicity program. The two were in various bands in Columbus, Ohio and Ann Arbor, Michigan before re-locating to Boston in the early 1970s. In Boston, Ocasek and Orr, along with lead guitarist Jas Goodkind, formed a Crosby, Stills and Nash-style folk rock band called Milkwood. They released one album, How’s the Weather, on Paramount Records in one thousand nine hundred seventy three that failed to chart.
After Milkwood, Ocasek and Orr formed the group Richard and the Rabbits, whose name was suggested by Jonathan Richman. The band included Greg Hawkes, who had studied at the Berklee School of Music and had played saxophone on Milkwood’s album. Hawkes left to tour with Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture, a musical comedy act in which Mull played a multiplicity of instruments. Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr then performed as an acoustic duo called simply Ocasek and Orr at the Idler coffeehouse in Cambridge. Some of the songs they played became the early Cars songs.
Later, Ocasek and Orr teamed up with guitarist Elliot Easton (who had also studied at Berklee) in the band Cap’n Sway. Cap’n Sway also featured drummer Glenn Evans, later followed by Kevin Robichaud, and a jazzy bass player, which clashed with Ocasek’s more rock and roll leanings. Benjamin Orr was the lead vocalist and did not play an instrument. Cap’n Sway soon came to the attention of WBCN disc jockey Maxanne Sartori, who began playing songs from their demo gauze on her display.
After being rejected by several record labels, Ocasek got rid of the bass player and drummer and determined to form a band that better fit his style of writing. Orr took over on bass and Robichaud was substituted by David Robinson, best known for his career with the Modern Paramours. Robinson had also played in DMZ and the Pop! Hawkes returned to play keyboards and the band became “The Cars,” a name suggested by Robinson, whose sense of style would have a strong influence on the band’s photo.
Rise in popularity, The Cars, and Candy-O (1978–1979) Edit
The Cars played their very first showcase at Pease Air Force Base in Fresh Hampshire on December 31, one thousand nine hundred seventy six and spent early one thousand nine hundred seventy seven playing across Fresh England, developing the songs that would become their debut album. A nine-song demo gauze was recorded in early one thousand nine hundred seventy seven and soon “Just What I Needed” was getting intense airplay on Boston radio stations WBCN and WCOZ. [Four] By virtue of that airplay, the band was signed to Elektra Records. The band’s debut album, The Cars, was released in June 1978, reaching No. Eighteen on the Billboard 200. “Just What I Needed” was released as the debut single from the album, followed by “My Best Friend’s Female” and “Good Times Roll” all three charting on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also featured numerous album tracks that received substantial airplay, such as “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight,” “Bye Bye Love,” and “Moving in Stereo.”
The band’s 2nd album, Candy-O, was released in June 1979. Featuring an album cover created by the famed Playboy artist Alberto Vargas, the album reached No. Three on the Billboard album chart in America. The album featured their very first Top twenty single, “Let’s Go.” Follow-up singles “It’s All I Can Do” and “Dual Life” were also released, albeit with less success.
Switch in sound, Panorama, and Jiggle It Up (1980–1983) Edit
Following the success of Candy-O, the band’s third studio album, Panorama, was released in 1980. The album, considered more experimental than its predecessors, featured only one Top forty hit with “Touch and Go”. Albeit the album peaked at No. Five in America, it did not receive the critical praise of The Cars and Candy-O, with Rolling Stone describing the album as “an out-and-out haul”.
In 1981, the Cars purchased Intermedia Studios in Boston, renaming it Syncro Sound. [Five] The only Cars album recorded there was the band’s fourth album, Wiggle It Up, a more commercial album than Panorama. It was their very first album to spawn a top ten single with the title track, and it included another hit in “Since You’re Gone”. Following their one thousand nine hundred eighty two tour, the Cars took a brief break and went to work on solo projects, with Ocasek and Hawkes both releasing debut albums (Beatitude and Niagara Falls, respectively).
Heartbeat City, Door to Door and break-up (1984–1988) Edit
The Cars reunited and released their most successful album, Heartbeat City, in 1984. The very first single, “You Might Think”, helped the Cars win Movie of the Year at the very first MTV Movie Music Awards. Other hit singles from the album included “Magic”, “Hello Again”, and “Why Can’t I Have You”. Their most successful single, “Drive”, with Orr on lead vocals, gained particular notability when it was used in a movie of the Ethiopian famine ready by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and introduced by David Bowie at the one thousand nine hundred eighty five Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in London [6] (the Cars themselves performed in the Philadelphia Live Aid concert). Actor/director Timothy Hutton directed the band’s one thousand nine hundred eighty four “Drive” music movie.
After the resulting period of superstardom and another hit single, “Tonight She Comes”, a No. Seven hit on the Billboard Hot one hundred and a No. One hit on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart (their last No. 1), from their Greatest Hits, the Cars took time off again to pursue solo projects. Easton and Orr released their debut albums (Switch No Switch and The Lace, respectively), while Ocasek released his 2nd solo album, This Side of Paradise. In 1987, the Cars released their sixth album, Door to Door. It contained their last major international hit, “You Are the Lady”, but the album failed to treatment the success of their previous albums. They announced the group’s breakup in February 1988. [6]
Post break-up, solo careers and Benjamin Orr’s death (1989–2009) Edit
In the late 1990s, rumors circulated of a Cars reunion, with no results. However, in one thousand nine hundred ninety five Rhino Records released a two-CD set Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology, containing all the group’s hits mixed with rarities (demos, non-album b-sides). They followed up with the releases of The Cars: Deluxe Edition (1999), their debut album in 2-CD format, and Accomplish Greatest Hits.
In the mid-1990s, Orr recorded tracks with guitarist John Kalishes for an unreleased follow-up to The Lace and performed with three bands, his own band “ORR”, The Voices of Classic Rock, and Big People. Orr did emerge with his former bandmates one last time in an interview for a documentary about the group prior to his death from pancreatic cancer, at age 53, in 2000.
Ocasek continued to perform as a solo artist, having released over seven studio albums. Robinson retired from music and spent most of his time working in his restaurant. In 2005, Easton and Hawkes combined their talents with Todd Rundgren, Prairie Prince (The Tubes, Journey), and Kasim Sulton (Utopia, Meat Loaf) in a revamped lineup, The Fresh Cars, to perform classic Cars songs along with some fresh original material and selections from Rundgren’s career.
In 2008, the band’s very first album was released for the movie game Rock Band. [7]
Reunion and Budge Like This (2010–2011) Edit
In 2010, the founding members of the Cars suggested a reunion when Ric Ocasek, Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes and David Robinson placed a photo of the four members together in Millbrook Sound Studios, Millbrook, Fresh York on their Facebook page. [8] On October 13, they also posted a snippet of a fresh song, “Blue Peak”, on their Facebook page. A picture of Jacknife Lee in the studio was posted on the group’s Facebook page hinting that he would be producing the fresh Cars album. [9]
In October Billboard reported that a fresh album which may be supported by a tour is being recorded at veteran engineer Paul Orofino’s studio in Millbrook, Fresh York. A music clip of a fresh song, called “Sad Song”, was added to the band’s Facebook page on December 7, 2010; another clip of a song called “Free” was collective on their Facebook page on January 1, 2011. The official debut movie for “Blue Peak” was released February 17, 2011. The movie was directed by Roberto Serrini and Eron Otcasek from The Lab NYC and features the four members of the band, and NYC based street artist Joe Iurato. According to Rolling Stone, the surviving Cars mutually agreed there would be no substituting the late Benjamin Orr, so Hawkes and Lee treated all bass parts. [Ten]
The fresh album, titled Budge Like This, was released on May ten by Hear Music/Concord Music Group, debuting at No. Seven on Billboard’s album charts. It featured ten songs in under forty minutes. [11] The album’s very first single, “Sad Song”, was released to radio stations March 1. [12] [13] In May 2011, the Cars went on a ten-city tour of the United States and Canada [14] and also performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago in August.
However the Cars have not violated up, they have been inactive since the tour’s conclusion in 2011, and their website has not been updated since that time. Tho’ on April 28, two thousand sixteen Ric Ocasek appeared on behalf of the Cars for a Q & A with SiriusXM satellite radio. Two thousand sixteen has also seen a release of remastered Cars music on CD and vinyl. Ocasek supervised the remastering.
The Cars have used genres that spanned through all of rock and pop music, including fresh wave, pop rock, protopunk, garage rock, and bubblegum pop. [15] They have also used rockabilly in songs such as “My Best Friend’s Chick”. [16] Robert Palmer, music critic for The Fresh York Times and Rolling Stone, described the Cars’ musical style by telling: “they have taken some significant but disparate contemporary trends—punk minimalism, the labyrinthine synthesizer and guitar textures of art rock, the ’50s rockabilly revival and the melodious terseness of power pop—and mixed them into a individual and appealing blend.” [1] They have also had hard rock-oriented songs including “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight.” [17]
The Cars have been an influence on many bands over the years, as evidenced by the list of varied artists that have covered their songs. These include Nirvana (who covered “My Best Friend’s Damsel” at their last-ever live spectacle on March 1, 1994), [Legitimate] Smashing Pumpkins (“You’re All I’ve Got Tonight”), Melvins (“Candy-O”), Crimson House Painters (“All Mixed Up”), Alkaline Trio (“Bye Bye Love”), Ziggy Marley (“Drive”), Poison (“Just What I Needed”), Deftones (“Drive”), and Hayseed Dixie (“My Best Friend’s Chick”), Scorpions (“Drive”), Sixx:A.M. “Drive”, among others.
In 2011, the Strokes were joined by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker for a cover of the Cars’ “Just What I Needed”. This took place when the Strokes were headlining the Reading gam of the Reading and Leeds Festival. [Nineteen]
In October two thousand fifteen and 2016, the Cars were nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame but were not selected.
- Ric Ocasek – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, keyboards (1976–88, 2010–present), backing vocals (1976–88)
- Elliot Easton – lead guitar, backing vocals (1976–88, 2010–present)
- David Robinson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1976–88, 2010–present)
- Greg Hawkes – keyboards, percussion, saxophone, rhythm guitar, bass, backing vocals (1976–88, 2010–present)