June of 1978, I was in Downtown Crossing, which was sort of an outside shopping mall area in Boston and next to the Strawberries - a sizable record store chain at the time - there was a photoshoot going on with a rock band. From a distance, I thought it might be The Ramones. But as I got closer, there was tall, lanky Ric Ocasek and the rest of the band. They weren't world-famous yet but starting to break nationally with "Just What I Needed."
Hated The Cars. Awful
We had a “Touch and Go” thread a few days ago. The Cars were a personal favorite. Great memories. This was Benjamin Orr’s signature song perhaps until “Drive.”
Way more edge and rock than the 80’s synth pop crappola that came a little after. Good rock song writing and production with the Cars, with always solid backing vocal and instrumentation and effects with Greg Hawkes. Two lead vox both having many hits is fairly rare.
Freegards
The cars were “just what I needed” as a teenager.
Apparently they started off as more of a jam band with longer, less structured songs and more instrumental improv. Then a producer or maybe a record company exec got hold of them and told them they had a future but only if they would make their songs more concise. I can’t remember the details but for whatever reason that advice registered with them and they made a big effort to pare their songs down to the bare essentials, and the rest is history.
Off their first album - I think “My Best Friend’s Girl” was their breakout hit on the east coast, but out west, “Just What I Needed” was the first most of us heard of The Cars. Great debut album, though for me “Candy-O” was the better album. As part of my getting back into vinyl, I bought their first two albums on vinyl again from Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs - they still sound great to me.