“Misfit Kid” by The Cars

"Misfit Kid" sits on Panorama, the third album the Cars delivered to Elektra in 1980, and it's Ric Ocasek's work start to finish: he wrote both the music and the words. Roy Thomas Baker, who had produced the band's first two records, was back at the controls, with Ian Taylor engineering.

The setting matters, because Panorama was the Cars scuffing up their own shine. The bouncy pop rock and hard-rock punch of the earlier albums gave way to something tougher, pushier and more willing to experiment, though the minimalist bones of the debut were still showing. Out in the late summer of 1980, "Misfit Kid" belongs to that restless, less obliging chapter of the band's story.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.