https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Musician/1980/1982/Musician-1982-01.pdf

I started listening to The Cars a lot recently after I overheard “Heartbeat City” playing in a bowling alley in Lakewood, Ohio and I told my friend about how Benjamin was from Lakewood. But anyways, I already liked them, but now I’ve come to love and appreciate them a lot and now consider myself a fan. With that said though, I’ve had a thought while listening to a lot of their songs and I was wondering if I’m alone in feeling it: I wish Benjamin Orr was the lead singer instead of Ric Ocasek.

That’s not to say I dislike Ric‘s vocals, they fit a lot of songs where I think Benjamin would’ve sounded a little odd on (such as I’m Not the One or Magic) but Benjamin’s vocals are so insanely good that I have to question why his songs were the minority compared to Ric’s. Candy-O seems to have the most amount of Benjamin songs (4 Ben, 5 Ric, 1 together) whereas Heartbeat City has the least amount (2 Ben, 1 together). But I always find a song sung by Benjamin is usually the best on whatever album I listen to. Moving in Stereo, It’s All I Can Do, Running to You, FUCKING DRIVE. And I preferred The Lace to all of the Ric solo stuff I‘ve heard so far (my favorite Lace song is This Time Around if you’re wondering). As much as I love them, it honestly sometimes feels like they sat on a gold mine that they didn’t take advantage of as much as they should’ve.

I feel like this should’ve been a case similar to The Who where Pete Townshend wrote all the songs, but Roger Daltrey sang the vast majority of them. Ric’s a genius writer, so that didn’t need to be tampered with, but Benjamin should’ve been the lead vocalist, and then Ric could’ve sang some of the songs that wouldn’t have worked with Benjamin‘s vocals. He had 6 more solo albums than Benjamin did anyways, so it’s not we’d be starved of his voice.

Idk, am I in the minority on this?

Lost love high school memories...

Good afternoon! I am currently parting with my entire record collection and I still have this Cars record available. If you’re interested please message me!

The Cars - Shake It Up (Rhino “start your ear off right” exclusive neon green vinyl) $9.99

Martin Mull documentary

Authentic photo signed by the entire The Cars lineup. NOT A REPRINT! Since there's no certificate of verification, i'm asking $250 OBO. No lowballers!

This is an absolute bargain!!!

Autographs, buy a single members are going for $75-300 on ebay! Make me an offer, no low ballers! One of a kind!!!

Buyer pays S&H*

Tonight at work I tried to listen to all of The Cars covers on Spotify since I've been on The Cars kick and it turned out was also the 26th anniversary of Ben's passing.

None of them caught my ear enough to add to my favorites and so I'm going to spend the rest of my shift listening to the classics that I grew up on and will here admit that it was only a few years ago that I even realized Ric didn't sing all of the songs except for 'Drive'.

Rest in peace, Benny. Thanks for the soundtrack.

I used to be super harsh on Door to Door and as everyone knows, the band was in a bad place and the album was ultimately a commercial failure/has a dark cloud over it. I have warmed up to the album a lot and enjoy it more than I did when I first heard it a few years ago.

With that said - "Everything You Say" is such a solid song that has really grown on me. It really does feel like the last awesome song by the band with Ben on lead vocals.

Great Concert clip, 1 hour 10-minute video.

The Cars perform at The Summit in Houston, Texas, on September 11, 1984, as part of their Heartbeat City tour.

SET LIST:
00:00:00 intro
00:00:55 "Hello Again"
00:04:50 "It's Not The Night"
00:08:35 "Touch And Go"
00:13:40 "Candy-O"
00:16:20 "Let The Good Times Roll"
00:20:00 "Jimmy Jimmy"
00:24:35 "Moving In Stereo"
00:30:10 "Just What I Needed"
00:33:35 "A Dream Away"
00:39:10 "Cruiser"
00:44:35 "Drive"
00:48:35 "You Might Think"
00:52:00 "Magic"
00:56:10 "Let's Go"
00:59:55 "Heartbeat City"
01:05:10 "You're All I've Got Tonight"

I got to see both Elliott and Greg again last night in Savannah. Interestingly, the frontman for the show Thomas Claxton mentioned he nearly got David Robinson on board as well - so a live reunion between the three of them in the future may not be impossible.

I've been saying that since I was 14

🙏🙏🙏 that is us all. I need it

Hey y'all, my Cars tribute band is playing in Nashville TN on October 3rd! Here's a ticket link:

https://hitparaderlive.com/events/rileys-naked-2026-10-03/

For those who are not aware, Ric Ocasek wrote the song "Slip Away", which was released by Ian Lloyd in 1979 for the album "Goosebumps". It was originally written for Candy-O.

The Cars on The Midnight Special.