The Cars and the self-titled album ‘The Cars’

Musically, The Cars were described as New Wave and Power Pop. Their debut album, self-titled The Cars (1978), was as close to a single album a greatest hits debut as perhaps occurred for any new wave band from the era. Released with strong production value, generous airplay from radio stations in Boston, Massachusetts and elsewhere, and a stable of well-written songs from Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr, the album was a success that, in part, landed The Cars in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

(Album cover for the self-titled, debut album of The Cars).

The album’s first three songs each landed in the Top 40 in the pop charts. Starting with Good Times Roll, the opening guitar-riff happily introduces a traditional rock audience enjoy what quickly crosses over to a more popular-driven audience enjoying vocal harmony, new-wave arrangement, and quality production. The synthesizers and electronic drums are nice touches for was Ric Ocasek reportedly said was a song meant to parody what good times where thought to be with a definition of what they actually are.

(Guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Ric Ocasek, left, with bassist, vocalist, and songwriter Benjamin Orr, of The Cars).

My Best Friend’s Girl has grown in critical reception since the song’s original release, the song itself peaking at number 35 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and reached number three in the UK. While following the full band formula of Good Times Roll, My Best Friend’s Girl lands in a more thematically blues and rock origin in terms of sound and subject matter. Lyricist Ric Ocasek said of this song that since nobody would ever sing of his best friend stealing a girlfriend in exactly those terms, he extended the metaphor with the charm of owning the feelings that the girlfriend used to be his. Those lyrics of ownership add so much, in my opinion.

With Benjamin Orr singing Just What I Needed with lyrics written by Ric Ocasek, this may be the most clearly new wave song from The Cars‘ debut album. Keyboardist Greg Hawkes recalled hearing the song in demo form and thinking the song was cool, unique, and concise pop song, as captured here. The song clearly shows a synthesizer sound that contributed to the song being “the group’s first big hit regionally and internationally,” as indicated in this Classic Rock Review. Clear influences from Ohio Express and The Velvet Underground are heard in this song.

The fourth song from The Cars is I’m in Touch with Your World, which offers a bunch of synthesizer sound effects without much sense of something suitable for radio play. While Hawkes has indicated liking to play this song in concert, the occasional interlude is perhaps the best thing for this song.

In closing out the first side of The Cars, Don’t Cha Stop suffers like I’m in Touch with Your World from not being as completely fleshed out or produced as some of the other songs from the album. In saying the band tends to bray on this song, Kit Rachlis from a Super Seventies review cuts me to the quick on offering something more helpful.

(From Left, Ric Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, Greg Hawkes, Elliot Easton, and David Robinson of The Cars in 1978).

David Robinson as drummer for the band is announced most strongly with You’re All I’ve Got Tonight, the opening track on the second album side of The Cars. This is the fifth and final song of the album with Ric Ocasek on lead vocals, the song explores a longer guitar solo maybe two-thirds of the way through the song. On classic radio stations to this day, You’re All I’ve Got Tonight receives airplay despite having never been released as a single. While never linked in such a manner, the song calls to mind The End by The Beatles from their album Abbey Road.

The final three songs of The Cars are sung by Benjamin Orr, seamlessly rolling into one another with Bye Bye Love starting the trio. Perhaps the most purely rock and roll song on the album, Bye Bye Love sings brings in the guitars of Easton and Ocasek, the drums of Robinson, the bass and singing of Orr, and the added layers of the keyboards from Hawkes added with refrain repetitions that work effectively. The song of coming to terms with the separation of a breakup has perhaps never been so dressed up the feeling of being jilted.

Conjuring Roxy Music, the song Moving in Stereo introduces experimentation in sound that is as experimentally successful use of the new wave as The Cars perhaps ever created. Introducing people to the notion of tremolo, which is perhaps more properly defined for non-musicians with this definition. Taking advantage of moving between the two channels of stereo rather than the single channel of radio, Moving in Stereo was co-written by Ocasek and Hawkes for folks who enjoy successful experiments in sound as much as I do.

The album closer All Mixed Up borders on being a ballad. Orr sang with a higher range here than anywhere else. The new wave sound of the album remains with this song, though the faux synth orchestral horns, an actual saxophone, and the sense of a guitar lead influenced by country music, with Orr‘s singing, adds up to a song that works. All Mixed Up brings the album The Cars to a satisfying end, though never has stood by itself as a song suitable for singles play on the radio.

(This photograph by David Richard through the Associated Press, REX, Shutterstock and Rolling Stone magazine, is from December, 2017. This was taken after The Cars were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in a ceremony held in Cleveland, Ohio).

The self-titled album The Cars by a band of the same name reflects a pop-rock mixture of music that has stood up for me. Airport Friend, a longtime friend of the page, couldn’t have been happier when The Cars were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Great music by The Cars followed this album, of course, though the origin holds resonance and merit for us as a great album.

Matt – Saturday, November 9, 2019