• Writer: Ric Ocasek
• Producer: Roy Thomas Baker
• Recorded: Early 1978 in New York City
• Released: May 29th, 1978 (single); June 6th, 1978 (album)
• Players:
  Ric Ocasek — vocals, guitar
  Benjamin Orr — vocals, bass
  Elliot Easton — guitar, vocals
  Greg Hawkes — keyboards, vocals
  David Robinson — drums, backing vocals
• Album: The Cars (Elektra, 1978)
• Also On:
  Greatest Hits (Elektra, 1985)
  Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology (Rhino, 1995)
  Complete Greatest Hits (Rhino, 2002)
• The Cars formed in late 1976 in Boston. Singer-guitarist Ric Ocasek and singer-bassist Benjamin Orr had been playing together for several years. Drummer David Robinson came from Jonathan Richman‘s band the Modern Lovers.
• Orr was formerly a member of the Upbeat TV show house band in Cleveland.
• The first-ever Cars gig was a New Year’s Eve show at the Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
• “Just What I Needed” was written in 1977, and a demo was recorded. It became the Number One top request at a couple of Boston radio stations.
• Elektra and Arista were the two labels bidding most seriously for the Cars. Elektra won because the group was worried that Arista’s roster — which included Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Iggy Pop — was too crowded with like-minded acts.
• The first single from The Cars, “Just What I Needed” peaked at Number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It reached Number 17 in the U.K. in March 1979.
• The Cars peaked at Number 18 on the Billboard 200 chart nearly 10 months after its release. It’s sold well over six million copies.
• The group was nominated in the Best New Artist category at the 21st annual Grammy Awards in 1979, but they lost to A Taste Of Honey.
• The Cars were voted Best New Band Of The Year in the Rolling Stone magazine readers poll.
• According to lead guitarist Elliot Easton, the Cars “used to joke that the first album should be called The Cars Greatest Hits. We knew that a lot of great bands fall through the cracks. But we were getting enough feedback from people we respect to know that we were on the right track.”

FAST FORWARD:

• The Cars disbanded in February 1988.
• Each of the members has gone on to other ventures. Ocasek, who married actress-model Paulina Porizkova, has had the most active solo career as an artist and a producer.
• Easton played for years with Creedence Clearwater Revisited, the group led by former Creedence Clearwater Revival bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford.
• Orr died in 2000, from pancreatic cancer, at age 53.
• Keyboardist Greg Hawkes has led a band called the Fierce Tibetan Gods.