The Cars (1978)
US #18 UK #29

hit singles:
"Just What I Needed" US #27 UK #17
"My Best Friends' Girl" US #35 UK #3
"Good Times Roll" US #41

Side One
1. "Good Times Roll" Ocasek 3:44
2. "My Best Friend's Girl" Ocasek 3:44
3. "Just What I Needed" Ocasek 3:44
4. "I'm in Touch with Your World" Ocasek 3:31
5. "Don't Cha Stop" Ocasek 3:01
Side two
6. "You're All I've Got Tonight" Ocasek 4:13
7. "Bye Bye Love" Ocasek 4:14
8. "Moving in Stereo" Hawkes, Ocasek 4:41
9. "All Mixed Up" Ocasek 4:14

Staying in Boston, here's one of my all-time favorite bands and one of the all-time best debut albums ever. It's pretty much prefection and Roy Thomas Baker's production is totally on the money.
A perfect combo of New Wave, Rock and Pop, this album is just great from start to finish.
Despite how overplayed they are, all 3 hit singles are so well-written and crafted and "Just What I Needed" remains one of my favorite songs from anybody. The idea of dual lead vocalists in Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr who both sound so detached and ice cold somehow works like magic with the songs which are warm with hooks and fills and extremely well-composed solos by Greg Hawkes and expecially the brilliant, criminally underrated Elliot Easton. Drummer David Robinson does nothing crazy, but he's very good actually.
Not too many better openers on an album than "Good Times Roll" by the way!
And of course, "Bye Bye Love", "You're All I've Got Tonight" and the futuristic New Wave if "Moving In Stereo" (and Pheobe Cates!) became radio staples.
The only song I'm not overly fond of is "I'm In Touch With Your World" and even that I like to some degree. Over 6 million sold in the US, The Cars remains one of the finest debut albums ever and really, one of the finest albums ever.
The model on the cover is Russian-born Natalya Medvedeva. I did not know that.

i lose my mind when radios play Moviing In Stereo and then don't let it continue into All Mixed Up. I always think of them together

Love this album from start to finish. I remember when it came out and my friend walked into the fraternity house and said, "You need to hear this right now."

One of my college dorm albums. First bought the 45 of "Just What I Needed" (red vinyl, picture sleeve) and then the LP.



Years later, hearing "Moving in Stereo" as a demo convinced me to buy my first CD player.

I wish I was in a frat house in 1978 hearing The Cars album for the first time. Instead, that year I was a little kid bugging my dad to take me to see Piranha (which he did) and get the new KISS album. So, life was still quite good.
Another thing about this amazing album-it does not sound like 1978.

Excellent album - nothing like setting the bar high right out of the gate. Always loved Elliot's guitar parts on "My Best Friend's Girl". And somehow, it would be years before I realized that Ben Orr sang my favorite Cars songs. Stupid not having Internet yet!

Alan

This album was a soundtrack to the Summer of 78. I most remember hearing it on boom boxes at Whitestone Park. And then later that Fall, I began college and the album was in everybody's car.....as an 8 Track!

Hard to believe the singles didn't chart better. Not even the Top Ten, what is wrong with people?

Great sounding album.

Well, 1978 was when disco and easy listening ruled the charts. New Wave was ahead of its time!

Same here. I splice them together for playlists.

The Cars are the first band music with whose music I first became thoroughly familiar, though it started with HEARTBEAT CITY. But "Bye Bye Love" is easily my favorite Cars song.

"You're All I've Got Tonight" is my favorite from the album.

Can't say it any better than IP did earlier: "...one of the all-time best debut albums ever. It's pretty much perfection..."

I think this is a great album for the most part. "My Best Friends Girl" is my favorite thing they ever did, and I like everything else on the album. Well, almost everything. I've just never much liked "Good Times Roll" and I actually like it less and less as time goes on. To me it doesn't fit in musically with the rest of the album and sounds like it was recorded so they'd have something for rock stations to play that didn't sound too new waveish. Unfortunately, the two Cars songs you're most likely to hear on the radio these days are "Good Times Roll" and another track that I don't think is representative of their sound either ... but we'll get to that one later.

I remember thinking the first time I heard "Just What I Needed" on the radio...

"This really IS the new, the game changer new wave promised!"

This is a catalog I know extremely well. I think I got into The Cars when Candy-O came out. I had just joined the Columbia House Record Club and it was one of my 14 albums for a penny (or whatever the deal was at the time). I have a feeling I got the debut shortly after that, and couldn't figure out which one I liked better. I was 13, so that was the kind of conundrum I often found myself in. Much as I love Candy-O, I think The Cars is just slightly better, which isn't surprising considering it's close to a perfect album (and unquestionably one of the greatest debut albums of all time). It's amazing that they were probably the only band that both rock and new wave fans could agree on.

I didn't see them live until the Panorama tour, but the true Cars experience was the records. I think it's generally acknowledged that their live shows were pretty lackluster. However, I'm glad I saw them when I did, before they used pre-recorded backing vocals (although maybe I'm wrong about that), and on the tour to support an album I loved. I have a feeling I'll be in the minority with that one here.

The 3 singles + Don't Cha Stop, Bye Bye Love & You're All I've got tonight are about as good as regular new wave got. 6 classics on a debut ain't bad.

It was also the first album that my wife played for me when we started dating in the 80's. She was punk/new wave, she assumed I was all rock, so she thought The Cars would be something we'd both like.

She was right.

(She did chastise me for singing along to Just What I Needed and singing the "time-time" and "kind of lose my mind, yeah" from the reprise during the first verse.)

probably would make my top 200, if not it would be close. when i play the cars i play this or "heartbeat city", which i might like even more than this. but i have this on DCC gold disc and it just sounds absolutely fantastic.

I love this. As far as initial albums go, this may be my favorite. Just brilliant.

I always loved this album, although I haven't heard it from start to finish in years--I still have my old vinyl copy out in the garage and have never gotten around to picking up the CD.

Someday...

Pressing this point a little further, stations play Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid" together as well as Queen's "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" even though there is no segue between either pair of songs. So why no love for MiS/AMU?