The Cars

The Cars reached their highest UK chart position, No 3, with My Best Friend’s Girl in November 1978 and enjoyed hits with Just What I Needed, Let the Good Times Roll, You Might Think, Let’s Go and, best and biggest of all, the aching ballad Drive.

They were the first American band to successfully take a punk/new wave aesthetic into the US charts – their use of irony, downbeat imagery, synthesizers, impassive vocals and European cultural references standing in contrast to the shrill hard rock then dominant – and Ocasek’s exceptional talent as a songwriter ensured they enjoyed a decade of hit singles and albums.

Patient and focused, lead singer Ric Ocasek was already in his 30s when The Cars released their debut album, The Cars, in 1978. Although his favourite musicians were artists such as the Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart, he proved an astute pop songwriter: his best songs employ repetitive hooks, powerful rhythms, melodies that hang in the listener’s head and a clever use of instrumental motifs. The Cars’ hits were not just distinctive but, as the Village Voice critic Robert Christgau has noted, their arch, glossy pop helped shape the sound of the 1980s. The finest Cars songs have an eerie quality akin to Roy Orbison’s best work – melodramas that convey a quiet intensity.

The Cars made a demo tape of Ocasek’s songs in 1977 and it received regular airplay on two Boston radio stations. Record labels began bidding to sign them up, with Elektra Records winning. The British producer Roy Thomas Baker – whose work with Queen had helped the band achieve superstardom – was assigned to the group.