The Cars’ biggest hit was a pop oddity
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- “Drive” by The Cars was their biggest hit, with a video that sparked a long marriage for Ric Ocasek and supermodel Paulina Porizkova, but the song touches on unusual questions. Cruise through the history of this classic tune in the new episode of the Behind The Song podcast.
Music Producer: Christian Lane
Video Director: Eva Empleo
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About Janda:
Behind The Song podcast host and creator Janda Lane is a radio DJ at WDRV-FM in Chicago, the city she calls home with her husband and podcast partner, Christian Lane, and their two cats, Ollie and Liam. She is a transplant from Los Angeles, where she was a video director at Fender, Executive Producer at Yahoo Music, playlist curator for Apple Music,, worked in rock management with artists like the Foo Fighters and Beck, was on the radio at KCRW, and she was a DJ at online radio pioneer site Soundbreak. She has not worked a day in her life.
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My reaction was most similar upon first hearing "All Mixed Up" the closing track just after "Moving In Stereo" in 1978. Who says rock and roll can't be or sound beautiful. Just turning 17 during Fall 1978, was a perfect time to be starting a new school in Waltham, just a train ride from Boston and spending Saturdays at the center of where it was all happening...from Boylston St. to Kenmore Square, Government Center and Quincy Market. Boston was so much more alive before I turned to my 20s.
“All Mixed Up” is an absolute masterpiece and the under-appreciated gem on the debut album. One of my all time favorites from my favorite band, The Cars. Great call!
One of the best songs of all time.
I grew up listening to The Cars' 80's hits thanks to my parents, but a few months ago I started really listening to them and now I'm a big fan of the band, every album, every song, every member of the band (especially my crush Benjamin Orr). Beautiful podcast really touched me! ❤
Thanks so very much for this great breakdown of one of the best tracks of the 80s.
Drive is still a fabulous song and the lyrics and melody are so beautiful.
Great video, and RIP Benjamin and Ric, we are still listening, and still enthralled.
Thanks for listening!
The great thing about the Cars is that even when they recorded a "pop" song it was still pretty weird when you took a closer look at the lyrics and a closer listen to the music.
1978 to 1988.... About right.
Those were my days.
I'm 63 years old and those were the best years of my life!
My all time fav band! I was hooked when I 1st heard Just What I Needed, Saw them twice in concert. RIP Ben + Ric!
I was a DJ in a bar years ago and I always ended the night with ‘Drive’ and then turned up the lights and sent everyone home.
Perfect choice!
Nice touch..
My first album I purchased with my own money was Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms' that came out in 1985 - and was one of the first albums available in compact disc format. I was 16, and finally able to get a job and earn my own money. If I could have worked a year earlier, I probably would have purchased The Cars 'Heartbeat City' on cassette.
Who remembers the Columbia House ads where you could get (something like) 11 records for $1?
I remember those Columbia House ads!
So perfect unique Ben's voice...You gone but will never be forgotten Benjamin Orr
My first album I bought with my own money was Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. But I was a huge Cars fan.
I remember this song very clearly from when I was maybe 2 or 3 years old, being played in my Mum's car on journeys. It's one of the earliest songs I remember from my childhood. Thanks for the video!
my all time fav band ,sad I could not see them at any of their gigs im from uk but they are from America.
Awesome as always Janda...Thank you for covering one of my favorite Bands and this beautiful tune!!!
So glad you enjoyed it!
She’s so right. Usually that first album becomes a lifelong love of that band. Mine was Cheap Trick at Budakon and I have bought every album they have made and went to their shows at least 20 times. It’s an old friend every time I play it all these years later.
I'm an old guy and stumbled on Drive, a Cars song?
My 35 year old son was moved, sad. GREAT STORY AND ANALYSIS!!
Ben Orr was a great singer.Loved his voice.
Why did you stop?
@@docsavage8640 -I said loved because he passed away.Maybe I should have written I love his voice or still love his voice.
Interesting story. I first heard of The Cars at a concert in 77. They were actually the warm up band I think for J Geils Band. It’s been a while. But what struck me was as they played their songs and there was a group of girls singing their songs a row down from me and they knew the lyrics and of course dancing to the songs. Needless to say the next day I made my way to Peaches record store and bought The Cars first album. It did not disappoint. I wore the grooves out of that album. I was lucky enough to catch all their tours except for their last album. I raised both my daughters on The Cars music. They even have my old concert tees from the different tours. The song Drive is their favorite. Unfortunately mine is Candy O. Thanks for your perspective on their album Heartbeat City. It’s definitely a classic album..
What a cool memory. Thanks for watching!
Such a moving song and melody.
Just listening to the background track playing while you spoke, brought back a lot of emotions.
Great episode!!! I will never forget that song and whole album…..brings back so many memories.
The Cars: features prominently on the soundtrack of my youth
Same here.
good video/ very informative!!🤩😍
It's about being a loner. Like the Eagles "Desperado". Let other people into your life. You need them to get you where you want to go and to prop you up when you're down.
Love this song.,.had forgotten all about it. Paused and enjoyed Drive in the middle of your video. My first purchase? BTO's Greatest Hits... vinyl...drove my parents crazy! Lol.
March 1984 I was 17 and it was a Saturday night and was at a friend's house and we had MTV on.... The video "you might think" came on and I was completely spellbound, it was so creative and innovative, I had never seen anything like that before and 2 days later on that Monday I bought the cassette tape Heartbeat City and the cars became my favorite band from that moment on
I’m right there with you! I was knocked out by The Cars too.
This Chick is AWESOME !
The first record I bought was the Beatles "Blue Double LP" (1967-1970) for $3.99 at The Treasury Store in Orange California. The Treasury was a chain owned by J.C. Penney. I rode my bike there in 1972 and left it in front of the store. Of course, it was still there when I came out!
I love how much effort you put in your videos..thanks a lot
Thank you so much for saying that and for watching!
The first record I bought was a 45, "Ticket to Ride". My brother and I had talked our parents into buying the first few Beatles albums, but the first album I bought with my own money was a few years later, "Let it Be". I had dozens of 45s by that point and a few albums that were given to me by Art Roberts, the WLS deejay and our neighbor in the early to mid 60's. Within months of buying "Let it Be", I started spending most of my grass cutting money on albums.
It’s funny how you never forget that first purchase!
Those 70s guys just kept on Rolling!
What a brilliant vid! Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
Agreed! Great commentary.
Glad you liked it!
Your recollection of buying the Album and how it made you feel brought tears to my eyes as i knew exactly the feeling you were describing and it instantly took me back. Thank You ❤❤
Thank you for listening. ❤️
I had the cassette too in the mid 80s. We got a huge satellite dish and hundreds of free channels including MTV and everything in 82 in rural Louisiana and I joined a band on drums/vocals that spring. So my parents would go to our fishing camp on weekends. Party time....our house was the Love Shack and beer bottles would be covering the place on weekend mornings. Rock on!
Terrific video with full information!
Thanks a lot for this and "Drive" my all-time favorite songs ever!!!!!!
Blessings!
I’m so glad you liked this one! Thanks!
@@behindthesongpodcast You're very welcome!!
Janda, I really enjoyed your talk about the CARS ! It also brought me back in time to think about my teenage years and how much music touched my life. I look forward to her more of you learning me about the back stories of the music that molded my life. Thank you! Trapperrod
That was lovely story thank you for sharing!
Such a wonderful memories of my youth. Today no Records store or Tapes, CDs are gone, and some of the shops don't even take cash anymore.
We are going to DRIVE, phone in the pocket, new digital personal ID and AI that will solve all our problems.
Well done Janda. I graduated HS 1978 so I know what's going on. The Cars I embraced through and through . I dig what you are doing. Right on!
Always loved this song...
Bobby Boris Picket's the Monster Mash, was my very first record purchase back in 74 ....
I love this album, and especially the song Drive! I luckily found your channel by chance You have some interesting and revealing information! I love music, just like the song by The Ojays, just listen to the lyrics I'd like to suggest you do an episode on my favorite song of all time Hotel California by The Eagles! I'd like to see what your research finds and reveals on this enigmatic and intriguing song! Thanks for the great content Have a great one!
Excellent suggestion! I actually did an episode about Hotel California in an earlier season, before the TH-cam channel was launched. If you want to check out the audio version of that episode, it’s here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-song/id1437006895?i=1000436336818
Glad you’re enjoying Behind The Song!
In 1984 the song meant (to me) asking a Love interest the question Who is gonna drive you home. But, in 2023, it means more like who is going to take care of anybody that is down.............
Heartbeat City was the first album I bought on the revolutionary new format called Compact Disk.
Thank you for this!
Thanks for watching!
Such n incredible group my memories of them are so cemented in my soul. My 2 favorites from them are a bit obscure and not their biggest hits but I’m impressed They won’t see you and You are the girl.
It's hard to believe the Cars never had a #1 hit.
Definitely, I think drive was the only one but their songs live on number one in our hearts!
The music competition in the 80s was brutal insanely talented bands groups and artist much like the 60s. I love that song, I still do, it’s kind of a sad song but it takes me back to my a youth in my 20s and teens. So much misery and loneliness i had. Back then. It a miracle i made it through those years. Thank God
Not Drive? It was played a hundred times a day in 1984?
“Drive” should have been. It was one of those songs that I always like to say “had #1 hit written all over it”.
I was 20 in 1984 and still recall buying Heartbeat City (on cassette, like you) from a MusicWorld in Toronto about a week after its release. I bought it solely on the strength of the Drive track. I'd been a Cars fan prior to Heartbeat City...but I was also a fan of practically anything produced by Mutt Lange. '83-85 was a remarkable few years for huge album releases by some of the best groups at the time. Van Halen had 1984, Scorpions had Love At First Sting and Def Leppard had Pyromania.
My first album I bought was the Beatles revolver album
Great work Jana, keep it up..
Thank you! Will do!
On early cassette releases of The Cars “Heartbeat City” the track “Heartbeat City” was labeled as “Jackie” instead
БОЖЕСТВЕННЫЙ ГОЛОС БЕНА БУДУТ СЛУШАТЬ ВЕКАМИ! ТАЛАНТ ЛЕГЕНДА! ВЕЛИКОЛЕПНЫЙ МУЗЫКАНТ! НЕДООЦЕНИЛИ БЕНА! 😢😢🤞🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮
Drive is a terrific track- it is one of those songs that defines the 80s. The song became forever linked with the Live Aid project when the BBC used it as the soundtrack to their footage of the Ethiopian famine. It reinvigorated the track and it became an ever bigger hit 2nd time around.
😅😊70 music for the 80s kids!
Made by 70s players!
@kenperkins7921 '60s players, really, Ric and Ben took a while to find success and were a LOT old than their "peers"
My first album was the debut album by the Monkees at age 8😅
Yes, i love this song too😊
Very nice video thank you!
Glad you liked it!
I always liked that song
Wow! Great, fun breakdown of the Cars! Thanks :)
Glad you liked it!
love this tune and heartbeat city.
Benjamin la voz de The Cars ❤
First album bought with my own money: Queen - A Night at the Opera
beautiful tribute to a great song, great band, and great musicians. Making them human.
Hi Janda,greetings from Brazil,The Cars/Drive the best!
Ps: You are so beautiful!💌
Thank you!
How’s they NOT have a #1 hit? Are you kidding me?
When I was 18 and into disco music 1979,my parents bought me bony M for Christmas and my brother got tubular bells,I was pissed off,tried to swap it with my brother he told me to piss off 😂 thanks John.❤
The first album I brought was The Time I had never heard guitar played like that in r&b music
Written by the late Ric Ocasek. He was on keyboards, not guitar. Late Ben Orr on lead vocals. Produced by The Cars 🚗 and Mutt Lange.
I thought Drive sounded similar to Waiting for a Girl Like You. To my surprise, Mutt Lange is the producer for both songs 🎵.
Ocasek hired Lange thinking that he would bring The Cars to do more guitar 🎸. Instead, Lange put more keyboards. This worked! 🤯
Lange co/produced and/or co/written many of my favorite musicians: AC/DC, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Huey Lewis, Loverboy, Billy Ocean. Later years, Lange worked with Heart ❤, late Eddie Money 💰 and Bryan Adams before Seattle rock took over in September 1991.
I can't remember the first one I bought myself actually. I do, however, clearly remember begging my grandmom to buy me the Beatles 67-70 when we were out clothes shopping. My parents had gotten me a stereo for my Holy Communion, but back then I didn't know anything about music, so they bought me random stuff, the best of the lot being Billy Joel's The Stranger. (That's just weird to me now; I had a Billy Joel album before I ever had a Beatles album.) But my uncle had played the Beatles for me and I loved them. I saw "the blue album" in a store and literally begged my grandmom until she agreed to buy it. And the rest is history, haha.
I saw The Cars on the Heartbeat City tour. Probably the second or third concert I ever went to. They were HUGE that year, the summer before I started high school.
I gotta be honest, though; the show was not great. Especially when I had more concerts under my belt to compare it to. Maybe they were having an off-night, but they just stood rock-still, very little talking between songs. The opening act was Wang Chung, haha, and they were far more energetic. Well, the Cars made great music. Can't take that away from them.
For the "Drive" video Tim Hutton was clearly inspired by the Dory breakdown scene in Woody Allen's 1980 film "Stardust Memories," his tribute to Fellini (see the 9:55 mark in the link below). "Drive" was a perfect pop song, and atypical of what The Cars usually produced - emotional, filled with regret and longing, not at all like the cold distance found in most of The Cars contributions to New Wave music in the 80's. I first saw the video on NBC's "Friday Night Videos" show - which was the only way then to see music videos if you didn't have cable for MTV. This was back when the "M" in MTV stood for Music.
th-cam.com/video/Q-ZmaLE8dao/w-d-xo.html
In a world...or a TH-cam...filled with videos of still pics, clip art, and synthesized voice over...one woman brought a human touch.
Thank you. This made my day!
I'll never forget the first album I ever bought. It was Van Halen's "Women and Children First" on LP, which will always be special to me. Aside from that, another special album that I purchased a few month's later was "Candy-O" by The Cars. This album changed my direction from listening to the typical blaring corporate rock/metal bands to the more experimental, proggy, new wave bands, which hadn't become mainstream in the late 70's and early 80's. Most of my friends at the time would turn up their nose to The Cars in favor of bands like AC/DC, Rush, and Van Halen. But I liked The Cars because they were unique and forward thinking. Ironically, by the time "Drive," which is a perfectly good song, came out, I felt The Cars had become more of a polished corporate band unlike their earlier days. Still good, but not as fresh and edgy as they were in the late 70's and early 80's. It all started with "Shake It Up."
At any rate, going to the record stores and flipping through all the LPs was a wonderful thing that I miss.
For me that first album you speak of was AC/DC "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap."
Despite how great their rockers were, "Drive" is The Cars best song.
Dive wasn't a cars top 10 song. It sucked.
Great band! Thanks Janda!!
Totally! Thanks for watching!
For me it was the same year and the first ever album I bought was Spandau Ballet's 'Parade' followed closely by 'Heartbeat City' and yes I know exactly how you felt.
There is nothing like that feeling!
Let’s go. On a 45 I think it was a dollar. First cassette was U2. War
I have a very high regard for The Cars. From the Dangerous Type my all time favorite song to Drive. These two songs have much in common in interactions with men and women. Both parties in each song faced rejection. The high brow women in Dangerous Type having the upper hand with the men wanting her. To the many ladies in Drive who need a ride home from the bar though the man driving her is not her first choice.
Paulina was beautiful as a woman who was becomimg unhinged from reality...❤
I literally wore out Heartbeat City.
I am almost sure this was one of my first albums too
Let the good times roll.
Ric was a savage!!!
I absolutely loved this album, yes, however, the first album I bought, still have & love is Elton John's Too Low For Zero.
Oh-by the conventional wisdom of half-plus-seven, Ric was definitely robbing the cradle.
Was their last album very good?
You're the female Wolfman Jack. That voice. 🙏🙏
I bought 45's for a buck a pop. Then the albums came. I'm old.
EXCELLENT choice for a first album. One of my 20 or 30 faves, after all these years. My first album, bought in 1969, causes me serious cringing, and I'm not even going to say what it was.
Let The Good Times Roll
Sadly, I think the first album I bought was “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em” by MC Hammer. I enjoyed a few tracks on the album but most were garbage. I’m glad I discovered bands like The Cars. I enjoy almost every song they made and not just the hits
I remember seeing the video for Drive for the first time and yelling “finally!”. Could never figure out why it took mgmt and Elektra so long to put a spotlight on his vocals AND looks. They should have stuck with that formula. Maybe I wouldn’t have run off to chase Sting and The Police.
A song of love trying to deal with alcoholism as I understand it.
Kevin Arnald ......Wonder Years!!!!
She should have pick Orr instead 😂
It’s one of life’s biggest mysteries.
Ben had a girlfriend already.
I have all there albums. I sleep with them 😴
How do you know you were one of the first to discover The Cars?.....? 8 Track..
Purchasing the first record. you brought tears to my eyes. at least i experienced what will never be again. im sorry for the generations to come in so many ways, but this is experience means more to me than the first time i had sex. you were correct in your description.
My first cassette that I bought with my own money was a double album with the Cars full album on side A and the Candy-O full album on side B. Result: instant Cars fan! 🚗
What is in Rick Ocasek's hand in that picture?
Still trying to find a live recording it's all I can do
There isn't one. Apparently, the band never played it live.
Obviously, nothing will beat the original, but if you want to hear a modern take on the song…yet still has all of the pain as the original…check out the version by Deftones!!!
Of course Heartbeat City was produced by Mutt Lange.
The best producer of 80’s rock. Period.
The next guy, that's who. F'n no brainer.
First album that wasn't a compilation was "The Beatles" a.k.a. The White Album.