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The Cars gave music audiences a unique sound in the late ‘70’s, when radio was dominated by disco and arena-rock. Their new wave sound featured prominent synthesizers and catchy pop songs, combined with a cutting edge sense of style, propelling them to become one of the most popular bands of the new wave era.

 

The Cars formed in Boston in 1976, with each member already having cut his chops on the Boston music scene. Their blend of ‘60’s punk-pop and spacey electronics won them a label deal and they went into the studio to record their first album with Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker. The result was their eponymous debut that featured punk-style guitar and slick synths, combined with an array of studio effects. It sold over a million copies and contained the Top-30 single, "Just What I Needed."

Readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted The Cars Best New Band of the Year in 1979, the year they released their next album, Candy-O. The record went platinum, and featured they keyboard-driven love song, “Let’s Go.” The following year saw their next platinum release with Panorama, and the Top-40 single “Touch And Go,” which blended a wash of synth sounds with a reggae-style guitar.

 

In 1981, The Cars built their own studio to record their next album, Shake It Up. The title track became one of their biggest hits ever, reaching #4. It was a new wave dance song that featured The Cars signature sound of synthesizers tempered with crunchy guitars. Lead singer Ric Ocasek began a solo career after this, with the album Beatitude, which contained the hit single with "Something To Grab For," a video that got significant airplay on the new MTV. He also began producing other bands, working with artists such as Romeo Void and Bad Brains.

 

The Cars best-selling album, Heartbeat City, was released in 1984. The first single, “You Might Think,” was promoted with a groundbreaking video that featured cutting-edge computer animation, and won the band the first MTV Video Music Award for Best Video. The band continued to push the envelope with their videos with the single "Magic," that had Ocasek walking on water, and the Top-20 hit “Hello Again,” whose video was directed by Andy Warhol. The biggest single on the album, however, was the uncharacteristic song “Drive,” a ballad sung by bassist Benjamin Orr.

 

The Cars Greatest Hits was released in 1985, and also featured the new single “Tonight She Comes.” The group also released Door To Door, and the single “You Are the Girl” went Top-20, with help from a cool sci-fi video with the band on a spaceship. In 1987, Ben Orr released a solo album, The Lace, and got a Top-30 hit with "Stay The Night." In 1988, the Cars officially broke up.

 

Since ending the group, the members of the Cars have gone on to other pursuits. In 2005, Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes combined their talents with Todd Rundgren, Prairie Prince (The Tubes, Utopia), and Kasim Sulton (Utopia, Meat Loaf) in a revamped lineup called The New Cars, to perform classic Cars songs along with selections from Rundgren's solo work and some new original material. Ric Ocasek is a successful producer, working with groups like Bad Religion and Weezer. Ben Orr died of cancer in 2000. The Cars broke through genre barriers, and combined pop, rock, new wave, and a sharp sense of style to create music that remains popular and influential to this day.