The Cars Heartbeat City

• Hello Again
• Looking for Love
• Magic
• Drive
• Stranger Eyes
• You Might Think
• It's Not the Night - The Cars, Hawkes, Greg
• Why Can't I Have You
• I Refuse
• Heartbeat City

Way back in 1984, the Cars hit paydirt with this fifth effort, which was considered at the time sometime of a sell out coming on the heels of the idiosyncratic new waveisms of their previous effort “Shake It Up” (not to mention their earlier work). The album, which is getting the deluxe reissue treatment afforded the band’s earlier efforts, contains two Top Ten smashes in “Drive” and “You Might Think,” plus some other Top 40 hits that wowed ’em on MTV at the time (“Magic” and “Hello Again”). The streamlined sound – and subsequent success of the record – was probably due to the band drafting Golden Ear producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange (noted eccentric Roy Thomas Baker helmed their previous efforts). The band would never scale such heights again; the self-produced “Door to Door” flopped in 1987, and the original group split, although some original members now tour with Todd Rundgren as the New Cars.

Abstract by Tony Sclafani