“Heartbeat City” by The Cars

"Heartbeat City", the title track of the Cars' fifth album, from 1984, started out under another name: original American LP and cassette pressings listed it as "Jacki". Ric Ocasek wrote it, and the band produced it with Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Nigel Green recording and Mike Shipley mixing, with Ocasek and Elliot Easton on guitars, Greg Hawkes on keyboards, Benjamin Orr on bass and David Robinson on drums.

First it did B-side duty, backing "You Might Think" in the US and "Why Can't I Have You" in the UK, before it finally got a release of its own in September 1985, the last of six singles pulled from the album. That same year the band played it at Live Aid, along with "You Might Think", "Drive" and "Just What I Needed". AllMusic's Greg Prato later called it ethereal and a highlight of the album.

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