The Cars: The
Elektra Years 1978-1987
Rhino/Warner Brothers/Elektra
For many the first time they heard of The Cars was with the
arrival of the band’s debut album in the summer of 1978. Made up of Ric Ocasek,
Benjamin Orr, Greg Hawkes, David Robinson and Elliot Easton the band originated
from Boston. Dubbed part of the then “New Wave” of American bands, the self-titled
album reached the American top twenty in the album charts. The album also spawned
three hit singles (Just What I Needed, My Best Friends Girl) and put the band
immediately on the map in a commercial sense.
Following the debut album, the Cars released Candy O some
twelve months after the debut and enjoyed another hit single in “Let’s Go”
The band would continue to release albums on a regular basis
and the albums Panorama in 1980, and Shake It Up all consolidated the band’s
ever growing popularity. Following the release of Shake It Up Ric Ocasek
released a solo album and the Cars took a hiatus. They returned however with an
album that was incredibly successful proving that the break had not weakened
their popularity.
Heartbeat City was produced by Robert John “Mutt” Lange who
was famous for producing more major rock bands than you could literally shake a
stick at including AC/DC and Def Leppard. His production skills certainly paid
dividends for The Cars and Heartbeat City again spawned a number of hit singles
including You Might Think and Heartbeat City. It was however the single Drive that
really took the band to another level thanks to its inclusion on a film report
on the famine in Ethiopia during the Live Aid concert.
Following Heartbeat City, the band took time off to release
solo projects and a “Best Of” was released to fill the gap until the band re
grouped to record what would be their final album of the eighties before a
lengthy lay off. Door To Door was released in 1987 and again contained a hit
single in the shape of Tonight She Comes which reached number one on the
American Rock Charts.
Whilst the band did get back together to film a documentary
on the band they would never record again in their original formation as in
2000 Ben Orr succumbed to cancer.
This boxed set contains all the band’s original albums
brought together in remastered and upgraded format and come in replica miniature album sleeves. My one gripe perhaps is
that there is not booklet with full details of the band but the reality of the situation
is that here lie sixty tracks drawn from the bands released archive. At a price
that really is too good to leave this box on the shelf the contents will be
regularly played on high rotation and remind you of just how good this band
really were and also the consistency of the bands output over a ten-year
period.
For those who perhaps want a distilled version of the box
then Rhino/Warners/Elektra have done just that and will release the single
disc “Moving In Stereo” in May for a
concentrated blast of the Cars recorded legacy
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