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A random thought inspired this post, which will likely result in a series of posts. I asked myself which album was my favorite among those produced by the Cars. There are honestly only four candidates for me: The Cars (1978), Candy-O (1979), Shake It Up (1981), and Heartbeat City (1984). All of these albums are good, and all have multiple songs that received substantial airtime, but as near-and-dear to me as Shake It Up is, and as much commercial success as the singles of Heartbeat City enjoyed, I have to go with The Cars.

This album is nearly perfect. Only three songs on the album didn’t substantial airtime, and only one of them absolutely shouldn’t have. 😊 Consider the following data:

Good Times Roll (Ocasek)	Charted at 41 in the US
My Best Friend’s Girl (Ocasek)	Charted at 35 in the US
Just What I Needed (Orr)	Charted at 27 in the US
I’m in Touch with Your World (Ocasek)	This one was weird.
Don’t Cha Stop (Ocasek)	B-side to My Best Friend’s Girl
You’re All I’ve Got Tonight (Ocasek)	Not released as a single but got tons of airplay on AOR stations.
Bye Bye Love (Orr)	Not released as a single but got tons of airplay on AOR stations.
Moving in Stereo (Orr)	Not released as a single but got tons of airplay on AOR stations and made it into the soundtrack for Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
All Mixed Up (Orr)	B-side to Good Times Roll

So, three of these new wave songs are released as singles, but I could hear six almost every time I went radio station surfing. Most of the songs on this album were all over my radio well into the 80s. I think Benjamin Orr gets the nod over Ric Ocasek as far as the songwriting goes, but this is still a solid album from top to bottom.

Of course, this is just an opinion, and everyone is free to form their own, but besides how I personally feel about the music, that data paints a picture of a good album in the eyes of the masses. It’s their only album that went 6x platinum (in the US), with even Heartbeat City (and Candy-O) trailing at 4x platinum. Moreover, most albums have several weak tracks, but this one has only one that I’d place in that category. Lastly, I’ll add that this album holds 5 positions in the list of the top 15 Cars songs, including #1, according to Billboard Magazine. Rolling Stone places 5 songs from The Cars on their top 17 “essential” list. Not that you should ever take the critics too seriously, but for only the second time, I’m on their side. The Cars takes my top spot for this band.

As always, YMMV.

Follow me on Twitter @gsllc
Follow the Cars @thecarsband