The Cars' Candy-O was released in late 1979, and I've always said the track "It's All I Can Do" is one of the most underrated hits of the era, and has a definitive 1980s-type sound to it.
The Cars lost their mojo after Candy-O.
That song certainly does set a mood and even today brings me back to a time and place - the summer of 1979. That was the first summer I had a driver's license and I borrowed my Dad's Chrysler and cruised up and down Revere Beach with the windows down, showing off to my fellow high school students. When hearing this song, I can still almost smell the salt air and fried clams (from Kelly's Roast Beef) from those hot, muggy nights.
Another song that does that for me is "Big Log" by Robert Plant. That was a few years later (1982 or 83) but at that time, I was in the Marine Corps at 29 Palms, CA. So that song always puts me in the middle of the Mojave Desert.