Album · The Cars
Heartbeat City by The Cars
Heartbeat City is an album by The Cars, released in 1984. 5 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 100 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “You Might Think”, on 51 lists with a best position of #68.
Heartbeat City, the Cars' fifth studio album, came out on Elektra in March 1984, and it's the Boston band trading in their longtime producer Roy Thomas Baker for Mutt Lange and producing alongside him. The result is new wave buffed to a mirror shine: glassy synthesizers, drum sounds as big as a stadium, and hooks polished until they practically hum on their own. Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr share the lead vocals as always, Elliot Easton slips in his tidy guitar breaks, Greg Hawkes stacks the keyboards and David Robinson keeps it crisp.
It played as a comeback, their biggest run since the debut. "You Might Think" and "Drive" both made the Hot 100 top ten, the first a cartoonish romp and the second a hushed, aching ballad, and the "You Might Think" video won Video of the Year at the very first MTV Video Music Awards. Rock and modern rock stations played track after track, and it went quadruple platinum.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Heartbeat City on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | You Might Think | 51 | #68 | – | 1989–2026 | |
| 2 | Drive | 33 | #33 | – | 1984–2026 | |
| 3 | Magic | 12 | #24 | – | 1984–2023 | |
| 4 | Hello Again | 3 | #43 | – | 1984–2023 | |
| 5 | Heartbeat City | 1 | #169 | – | 1988 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.