The Cars

The Cars came out of Boston in 1976 and sounded like the future and the past at the same time. Ric Ocasek played rhythm guitar and wrote nearly every song, Benjamin Orr played bass, and the two of them split the lead vocals; Elliot Easton played lead guitar, Greg Hawkes handled keyboards and David Robinson played drums. The band blended the punch of '70s guitar rock with the gleam of synthesizers, and they did it so seamlessly that it seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

Their self-titled debut album, released in 1978, is loaded with songs radio has never let go of: "Just What I Needed", "My Best Friend's Girl", "Good Times Roll", "Moving in Stereo" and "Bye Bye Love", all cool, clipped and irresistible. It sold six million copies and spent 139 weeks on the Billboard 200, and they topped a readers' poll as best new artist. Candy-O, in 1979, brought "Let's Go" and the title track, and Panorama, in 1980, had "Touch and Go".

Shake It Up, in 1981, gave them their first top 10 hit with its title track, and Heartbeat City, in 1984, was their slickest record, with "You Might Think" and "Drive", a hauntingly lovely ballad. "You Might Think" won Video of the Year at the first MTV Video Music Awards. Door to Door followed in 1987, and a year later the band broke up. Ocasek's grip on the songwriting had caused friction inside the group.

Orr died of pancreatic cancer in 2000, and the surviving members reunited to make one final album, Move Like This, in 2011. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in April 2018, and the band played together one last time at the ceremony before Ocasek died the following year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.