Early years Before forming The Cars, the band's members performed together in several groups. Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr met in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1960s after Ocasek saw Orr performing with his band, the Grasshoppers, on
The Big 5 Show, a local musical variety program. The two were members of various bands in Columbus, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, before moving to Boston in the early 1970s. The band was formed in 1976.
Rise in popularity, The Cars, and Candy-O (1976–1979) After a warmup gig in a motel lounge outside of
Boston, the Cars played their official first show at
Pease Air Force Base in
New Hampshire on December 31, 1976. Cap'n Swing's keyboardist Danny Schliftman (later to join
Gov't Mule under the name Danny Louis) played with the Cars for their first several gigs until Greg Hawkes was free to join in February 1977. The Cars spent early 1977 playing throughout New England, developing the songs that appeared on their debut album. A nine-song demo tape was recorded in early 1977 and soon "
Just What I Needed" was receiving heavy airplay on Boston radio stations WBCN and
WCOZ. The band was offered record deals by
Arista Records and
Elektra Records and finally signed with famed
A&R executive
George Daly to Elektra-Asylum, a label with comparatively fewer new-wave acts. The band's debut album
The Cars was released in June 1978, reaching No.18 on the
Billboard 200. "Just What I Needed" was released as the debut single from the album, followed by "
My Best Friend's Girl" and "
Good Times Roll", all three charting on the
Billboard Hot 100. The album featured multiple album tracks that received substantial airplay such as "
You're All I've Got Tonight", "
Bye Bye Love" and "
Moving in Stereo". The band's second album,
Candy-O, was released in June 1979 and eclipsed the success of
The Cars, peaking at No. 3 on the
Billboard 200 album chart, 15 spots higher than the debut album. Featuring a cover created by the famed
Playboy artist
Alberto Vargas, the album featured the band's first top-20 single "
Let's Go". Singles "
It's All I Can Do" and "
Double Life" were also released, but with less success.
Change in sound, Panorama and Shake It Up (1980–1982) Following the success of
Candy-O, the band's third studio album
Panorama was released in August 1980. The album was considered more experimental than its predecessors and featured only one top-40 hit, "
Touch and Go". Although the album peaked at No. 5 in the U.S., it did not receive the critical praise of
The Cars and
Candy-O, with
Rolling Stone describing the album as "an out-and-out drag." In 1981 the Cars purchased Intermedia Studios in Boston, renaming it
Syncro Sound. The only Cars album recorded there was the band's fourth album
Shake It Up, a more commercial album than
Panorama. It was the band's first album to spawn a top-10 single with
the title track, and it included another hit in "
Since You're Gone". Following their 1982 tour, the Cars took a two-year break and the members worked on solo projects, with Ocasek and Hawkes both releasing debut albums (
Beatitude and
Niagara Falls, respectively).
Heartbeat City, Door to Door, superstardom, and first hiatus (1984–1988) The Cars reunited and released their most successful album,
Heartbeat City, in March 1984. The first single, "
You Might Think", helped the Cars win
Video of the Year at the first
MTV Video Music Awards. Other hit singles from the album included "
Magic", "
Hello Again" and "
Why Can't I Have You". "
Drive", with Orr on lead vocals, gained notoriety when it was used in a video about the
Ethiopian famine shown at the 1985
Live Aid concert at
Wembley Stadium in London, although the Cars performed at the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia. The song became the band's most successful single, reaching No. 3 on the
Billboard Hot 100. Actor/director
Timothy Hutton directed the song's music video. The band's 1985
Greatest Hits compilation included another hit single, "
Tonight She Comes", which peaked at No. 7 hit on the
Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the
Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart. After solo projects from Easton, Ocasek and Orr and a film score by Hawkes, the Cars reunited in 1987 for their sixth album,
Door to Door. It contained two old tracks from their club days, "Leave or Stay" and "Ta Ta Wayo Wayo", and produced their last major international hit "
You Are the Girl". The album failed to approach the success of their previous albums, and the group announced their breakup in February 1988.
Orr's death and "The New Cars", 2000–2008 In April 2000, Orr was diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer and hospitalized. He continued to perform with the band Big People throughout that summer at music festivals and state fairs. He reunited with the Cars one last time in
Atlanta for an interview that was included in the
Rhino Records concert video
The Cars Live. He died from the disease at his home in Atlanta on October 4, 2000, at the age of 53. In late 2005, the Cars were planning to re-form despite Orr's death and lack of interest on the part of Ocasek. A primary motivation for the desire to tour by the other surviving members was due to the fact that all song royalties from their music library went almost exclusively to Ocasek, which left the surviving members cut off from revenue from The Cars' music library. Rumors followed that
Todd Rundgren had joined Easton and Hawkes in rehearsals for a possible new Cars lineup. Initial speculation pointed to the New Cars being fleshed out with
Clem Burke of
Blondie and
Art Alexakis of
Everclear. Eventually the group completed their lineup with former Rundgren bassist Kasim Sulton and studio drummer
Prairie Prince of
the Tubes, who had played on
XTC's Rundgren-produced
Skylarking and who has recorded and toured with Rundgren. In early 2006, the new lineup played a few private shows for industry professionals, played live on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and made other media appearances before commencing a 2006 summer tour with the re-formed Blondie. Rundgren referred to the project as "an opportunity ... for me to pay my bills, play to a larger audience, work with musicians I know and like, and ideally have some fun for a year." The New Cars' first single, "Not Tonight", was released on March 20, 2006. A live album/greatest hits collection, ''
The New Cars: It's Alive'', was released in June 2006. The album includes classic Cars songs and two Rundgren hits recorded live plus three new studio tracks ("Not Tonight", "Warm", and "More") In 2008,
Video game developer Harmonix released the Cars' debut album as ''
Rock Band's'' second downloadable full album (following
Judas Priest's
Screaming for Vengeance).
Reunion, Move Like This and second hiatus (2010–2017) in May 2011 in August 2011, the band's final performance until their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2018 In 2010, the surviving founding members of the Cars suggested a reunion when Ocasek, Easton, Hawkes and Robinson placed a photo of the four members together, taken at Millbrook Sound Studios, on their Facebook page. On October 13, they also posted a snippet of a new song titled "
Blue Tip". A picture of
Jacknife Lee in the studio was posted, hinting that he would produce the new album. In October,
Billboard reported that the Cars were recording a new album at veteran engineer Paul Orofino's studio in Millbrook, New York. A music clip of the new song "
Sad Song" was added to the band's Facebook page on December 7, 2010. A clip of a song titled "Free" was shared on January 1, 2011. The official debut video for "Blue Tip" was released on February 17. The video features the members of the band and New York-based street artist Joe Iurato. The surviving Cars agreed to not replace Orr, so Hawkes and Lee handled all of the bass parts. was released on May 10 by
Hear Music/
Concord Music Group, debuting at No. 7 on
Billboards album chart. It featured 10 songs in under 40 minutes. "Sad Song" was released to radio stations on March 1 as the album's first single. In May 2011, the Cars embarked on a
ten-city tour of the United States and Canada and also performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago in August. On the tour, Orr's bass parts were performed by Hawkes on keyboard and bass, and the vocals for songs originally sung by Orr ("Just What I Needed", "Let's Go" and "Moving in Stereo") were performed by Ocasek. In an interview, Ocasek was asked whether the band would have reunited if Orr had still been alive, responding: "Ben and I had a real cold war going that lasted about 23 years. I could never really figure out exactly why, but I think there was a lot of jealousy because I wrote the songs and I got a lot of attention. And there was all kinds of weird stuff, like he said, 'My girlfriend writes songs, let's use one of those or two of those.' I said, 'No, that's not the Cars.'" The Cars once again became inactive after the tour's conclusion in 2011.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and death of Ric Ocasek (2018–2019) After seven years of inactivity, the group reconvened, along with
Weezer's
Scott Shriner on bass, to play a four-song set at their 2018 induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ==Musical style==