About
Boston gave rock plenty of gifts, but few were as slickly influential as The Cars, who coalesced around singer-guitarist Ric Ocasek and bassist Benjamin Orr in the late 1970s. Rounding out the classic lineup were guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes, and drummer David Robinson, a group of players who collectively understood something most of their peers didn't: that punk's raw energy and 70s AM radio polish didn't have to be enemies. Their 1978 self-titled debut was an instant statement, stacking hits like Just What I Needed and My Best Friend's Girl back to back with an effortless cool that made the whole thing feel inevitable.
Musically, The Cars occupied that sweet spot where new wave met hard rock, layering Hawkes's synthesizers over Easton's razor-sharp guitar work while Ocasek and Orr traded vocal duties to devastating effect. Albums like Candy-O, Shake It Up, and the massive Heartbeat City kept them at the forefront of early MTV culture, with videos that felt genuinely cinematic. Drive, featuring Orr on lead vocals, became one of the defining ballads of 1984. Their influence stretched deep into the alternative rock that followed, and their 2018 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame felt long overdue to anyone who'd been paying attention.
