Boston's five-piece outfit the Cars cultivated a polished, mechanical aesthetic shaped by proto-punk, garage rock, and bubblegum pop, which yielded repeated platinum albums and a steady stream of Top 40 singles and positioned them as the leading American new wave act of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Retaining ample rock & roll edge to reach album rock airwaves, the band nevertheless drew deeply from the art rock lineage of Suicide, the Velvet Underground, and Roxy Music. Their opening pair of releases, 1978's The Cars and 1979's Candy-O, quickly became new wave landmarks, while the fifth effort, 1984's Heartbeat City, stood as a sleek pop achievement buoyed by a succession of videos that turned into MTV fixtures. Although the Cars disbanded in 1988, the enduring appeal and reach of their catalog prompted two reunions: one in the mid-2000s that omitted Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr (who died in 2000) and another in 2011 that brought back every surviving original member.
Ric Ocasek, who handled guitar and vocals, and Ben Orr, who played bass and sang, had already worked together for years when they launched the Cars in 1976. Ocasek first picked up the guitar and began composing at age ten. Following short stints at Antioch College and Bowling Green State University, he left academia, relocated to Cleveland, and there encountered Orr, who had fronted the house band on the television program Upbeat while still a teenager. The pair started writing material and fronted groups across Cleveland, New York City, Woodstock, and Ann Arbor before establishing themselves in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the early 1970s. In 1972 they anchored the folk trio Milkwood, whose Paramount Records album appeared late that year to little notice; session keyboardist Greg Hawkes contributed to the sessions. By 1974 Ocasek and Orr had assembled Cap'n Swing, which included Elliot Easton on lead guitar. Although Cap'n Swing drew strong local crowds in Boston, the lineup dissolved in 1975. The following year Ocasek, Orr, and Easton recruited former Modern Lovers drummer Dave Robinson and keyboardist Hawkes to form the Cars.
Early in 1977 a demo of "Just What I Needed" reached Boston's influential WBCN and swiftly became the station's most-played track. Throughout the rest of that year the Cars performed regularly in local clubs, and by year's end they secured a contract with Elektra. Their self-titled debut surfaced in summer 1978 and gradually built momentum through the charting singles "Just What I Needed" (number 27), "My Best Friend's Girl" (number 35), and "Good Times Roll" (number 41). The album lingered on the charts for more than two-and-a-half years, postponing the follow-up, and ultimately surpassed six million copies sold.
Candy-O, taped at the start of 1979, reached stores later that summer. It registered an immediate commercial impact, surging to number three and earning platinum certification within two months. The set produced the Top Ten single "Let's Go" and moved the band onto the arena circuit. Perhaps in response to their rapid ascent, the group ventured into more expansive territory on 1980's Panorama. Though less dominant than earlier releases, the album still reached number five and achieved platinum status. Ahead of their fourth album, individual members explored outside projects, notably Ocasek, who earned acclaim as a new wave producer through work with Suicide and Romeo Void and even cut some demos for Iggy Pop. Shake It Up appeared in fall 1981, promptly went platinum, and delivered the band's first Top Ten single with its title track.
After that success the Cars recorded the soundtrack for the short film Chapter-X before entering an extended break; Ocasek issued the solo album Beatitude in 1982, Hawkes followed with Niagara Falls the next year, and Ocasek also produced the debut from hardcore punk band Bad Brains. The group reconvened in 1983 for Heartbeat City, released in early 1984. A pioneering computer-animated video helped the lead single "You Might Think" reach the Top Ten and lifted the album to number three. Three additional Top 40 hits arrived later that year—"Magic" (number 12), "Drive" (number three), and "Hello Again" (number 20)—and the record attained triple platinum certification by summer 1985. At year's end the band issued Greatest Hits, which contained two fresh charting singles, "Tonight She Comes" and "You Are the Girl."
The Cars remained largely inactive through 1985 and 1986 while Easton released Change No Change and Orr released The Lace. In 1987 they completed their seventh album, Door to Door. Issued that summer, it achieved modest chart success and spawned the single "You Are the Girl," which peaked at number 17. The record's somewhat perfunctory character fueled rumors of an impending split, and in February 1988 the band confirmed its dissolution. Each member pursued solo work, though only Ocasek maintained a steady release schedule. By the 1990s he had also become a sought-after alt-rock producer, collaborating with Weezer, Bad Religion, Black 47, Hole, Guided by Voices, No Doubt, Nada Surf, Johnny Bravo, D Generation, Possum Dixon, Jonathan Richman, the Wannadies, and former Suicide members Alan Vega and Martin Rev. Easton later resurfaced with Creedence Clearwater Revisited, while Orr succumbed to pancreatic cancer on October 3, 2000.
Following Orr's death, several archival Cars projects surfaced, among them the concert DVD Live (recorded in Germany in 1979 and containing an interview taped shortly before Orr's passing), a double-disc deluxe edition of the debut album, and the broader hits package Complete Greatest Hits. By early 2002 Ocasek was assembling a documentary film drawn from backstage footage and unreleased promotional clips the band had shot itself. He also continued solo recording, releasing Nexterday in 2005 to favorable notices. Meanwhile Greg Hawkes and Elliot Easton joined Todd Rundgren in the New Cars, a pop supergroup whose set lists mixed Rundgren's solo material, the Cars' earlier hits, and fresh songs. The New Cars toured with Blondie in 2006 and issued the live album It's Alive! before Rundgren returned to his individual career the next year. In 2010 the original Cars reunited for the first time in two decades, with the late Orr the sole absentee. Working with producer Jacknife Lee at a temporary studio in Millbrook, New York, they completed 2011's Move Like This. Issued on Hear Music and met with positive reviews, the album reached number seven, after which the group undertook a short tour. The band then fell silent again, the only later milestones being a 2015 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination (which did not result in induction) and the 2016 collections Moving in Stereo: The Best of the Cars and the exhaustive box set The Elektra Years 1978-1987.
