The Cars – “Just What I Needed”, “My Best Friends Girl”, “Good Times Roll”, “Touch And Go”, “Since You’re Gone”, “Shake It Up” and “Drive”

Looking for a present for my sister in the late Seventies, I bought her the 1978 The Cars album, aptly titled “The Cars”, so I could also listen to tracks like “Just What I Needed”, “My Best Friend’s Girl” and “Good Times Roll”, which I had heard covered live by resident band Snatch at the Majestic Hotel in New Zealand’s university town of Palmerston North.

“Touch And Go” from the 1980 album “Panorama” is another track from The Cars I like, as is “Shake It Up” from the album of the same name, which apparently came out in 1981, though I seem to remember hearing the track before that. (As it was written years earlier by Ric Ocasek, I guess that’s possible.)

A later song by The Cars that has always been a favourite of mine – though I’m not even sure I knew it was from them – is their 1984 hit “Drive”, which was featured at the Live Aid concert in 1985.

This song from 1978 was at Live Aid too…. “Just What I Needed”:

The huge crowd at Live Aid certainly enjoyed it, but I kind of prefer the earlier version, this reminds me of the atmosphere at the pub where I used to dance to this song in the late Seventies:

“My Best Friends Girl”:

“Good Times Roll”:

Can’t say I remember “All Mixed Up”, also from the first album, but I like the sound:

I definitely have memories of “Touch And Go”, from the “Panorama” album:

“Since You’re Gone”, from the “Shake It Up” album, has the feel of an Irish singalong (makes me think of The Pogues!):

And of course, the title track from that album, “Shake It Up” itself:

“Drive”, from the 1984 album “Heartbeat City”:

The sadness in this song is made more poignant still knowing that the singer, The Cars bass player Benjamin Orr, died just a decade and a half later of pancreatic cancer. He was still performing live six days before his death.

Because “Drive” is such a beautiful song, here it is again live:

Take care.

Paul

Tags: Benjamin Orr, Drive, Good Times Roll, Heartbeat City, Just What I Needed, Live Aid, Majestic Hotel, Music of the Seventies, My Best Friends Girl, New Wave, Palmerston North, Panorama, Ric Ocasek, Seventies Rock Bands, Shake It Up, Since You're Gone, Snatch, The Cars, The Pogues, Touch And Go

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