"Drive" by The Cars

Top 10 Alert!

Song#:  2004
Date:  08/04/1984
Debut:  51
Peak:  3
Weeks:  19
Genre:  Pop, Rock



Pop Bits:  This band's fifth album, Heartbeat City, was already doing quite well thanks to its two hit singles "You Might Think" (#7) and "Magic" (#12). But the album would kick into high gear with this third single. The band wasn't known for their ballads, but this tune caught on big time and ended up spending three weeks at #3 at Pop. In doing so, it became the biggest Pop chart hit of their career. The song became their first to reach the AC chart and it ended up topping out at #1. It also was their fourth Top 10 at Rock getting to #7. The hit pushed the album to #3 and over time it would sell over four million copies to become their best-selling studio LP.

ReduxReview:  I remember sitting in my basement bedroom of a shared house during my college years and playing this on my little Casio keyboard. It's not a complicated song, but Ocasek wrote a great melody over a nice chord structure. The results ended up being their biggest hit. The Cars were a hit-n-miss band for me, so after a couple of songs that I didn't really care for, this one won me over. It was a pretty ballad and something that was a bit out of the ordinary for them.

ReduxRating:  8/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) Although Ric Ocasek wrote this song, the lead vocals were handed by Benjamin Orr.  Ocasek's voice had come to represent the group since he sang on the majority of their hits. However, Orr took the lead on a few singles including "Just What I Needed" (#27), "Let's Go" (#14), and this big hit.  2) The video for this song was directed by Oscar-winning actor Timothy Hutton. Apparently, Hutton lived next to the band's manager Elliot Roberts and one day Hutton mentioned how much he liked "Drive" and his ideas on what a video might look like. Roberts passed Hutton's ideas on to the band and they liked Hutton's vision so much that they asked him to go ahead a direct it. The video featured model Paulina Porizkova. Five years later, she and Ocasek would tie the knot.

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