Music Blog

The Cars First Public Appearance

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for the May 4, 2025 edition
of Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday.
Here’s what I have to say.  

© Savage Pink

This week for Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday theme, “First Public Appearance”, the challenge is to pick a song from a debut album. Compared to the last two weeks where the challenges were quite specific, the field for this one is wide open.

There’s a truism about debut albums that an artist or band has their whole life to write one. And that is supposed to explain why the best debuts are so good; nothing that comes after will ever be prepared with as much thought or be accompanied by higher stakes. A great debut can make you, and it can also create the framework by which anything you do afterward is judged.

Recent SLS themes have had me doing the stroll down Memory Lane … and this one’s no different. The year my featured album debuted was 1978 and I was smack dab in the middle of having babies … barefoot, pregnant and very happy. It was the most amazing and transformative period of my life. As I mentioned in my previous SLS posts, MTV was featured prominently during this phase of my life; having music playing in the background helped everything go a little smoother. Whether I was bopping around the kitchen preparing dinner or folding laundry during nap time, without fail, one of the great songs from the album The Cars would come on. I wasn’t what you’d call a big Cars fan but this album was great.

The Cars were a new wave/power pop band formed in Boston in 1976 by Ric Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes, and David Robinson. With the release of their self-titled debut album, The Cars, they were one of America’s most popular bands, effortlessly knocking out hits such as “My Best Friend’s Girl”, “Just What I Needed”, “Good Times Roll” and “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight”.  The album sold 6 million copies and appeared on the Billboard 200 album chart for 139 weeks. The band was named Best New Artist in the 1978 Rolling Stone Reader’s Poll.

Led by singer/guitarist/songwriter Ric Ocasek, The Cars were the prototypical new wave band; they scored a string of hits, sold out arena tours and became the darlings of MTV. It appeared the band could do no wrong. In the years that followed their debut album, The Cars released several more albums and a ‘greatest hits album’, but by 1988 the once tightly knit group had completely unraveled. 

The Cars disbanded in 1988. Benjamin Orr died in 2000 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 53. In 2007, Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes joined Todd Rundgren to form the offshoot band, The New Cars. The remaining original members of The Cars reunited in 2010 to record the band’s seventh and final album, Move Like This, which was released in May 2011. Following a short tour, the band once again went on hiatus. In April 2018, The Cars were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and reunited to perform at the induction ceremony. One year later, Ric Ocasek died of cardiovascular disease at the age of 75.

“My Best Friend’s Girl” written by Ric Ocasek before The Cars got together. He said the lyrics are about something that happens to a lot of guys … losing their girlfriend to someone else. Ocasek also said the words for the chorus were an afterthought. At some point, he realized that his lyrics didn’t actually include the title words “My Best Friend’s Girl”, so he added them later as a chorus. Good move, considering the part of the song everyone knows best and sing along with is the chorus.

The song first appeared in 1977 on Boston radio stations WCOZ and WBCN from a demo tape that was submitted by Ric Ocasek along with “Just What I Needed”. The DJ who was given the tapes, Maxanne Sartori, recalled, “I began playing the demos of ‘Just What I Needed’ and ‘My Best Friend’s Girl’ in March during my weekday slot, from 2 to 6 p.m. Calls started pouring in with positive comments.” Shortly thereafter, they became the stations’ most requested songs. Released as the album’s second single, it peaked at #35 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and reached #3 in the UK. “My Best Friend’s Girl” was ranked the 12th best song of 1978 and named one of “The 1001 Best Songs Ever” in a 2003 issue of Q magazine.

This is “My Best Friend’s Girl” by The Cars


LYRICS

You’re always dancing down the street
With your suede blue eyes
And every new boy that you meet
He doesn’t know the real surprise

When she’s dancing ‘neath the starry sky
Ooh, she’ll make you flip
(Here she comes again)
When she’s dancing ‘neath the starry sky
I kinda like the way she dips

Well she’s my best friend’s girl
She’s my best friend’s girl
But she used to be mine

You’ve got your nuclear boots
And your drip dry glove
Ooh, when you bite your lip
It’s some reaction to love

When she’s dancing ‘neath the starry sky
Ooh, I’ll make you flip
(Here she comes again)
When she’s dancing ‘neath the starry sky
(Here she comes again)
I kinda like the way, I like the way she dips

‘Cause she’s my best friend’s girl
Well she’s my best friend’s girl
But she used to be mine
She’s so fine

You always go dancing down the street
With your suede blue eyes
And every new boy that you meet
He doesn’t know the real surprise

When she’s dancing ‘neath the starry sky
Ooh, she’ll make you flip
(Here she comes again)
When she’s dancing ‘neath the starry sky
I kinda like the way, I like the way she dips

‘Cause she’s my best friend’s girl
She’s my best friend’s girl
She used to be mine
She’s so fine

Woo!
(My best friend’s girlfriend)
She used to be mine
(My best friend’s girlfriend)
Yeah yeah
(My best friend’s girlfriend)
Said she used to be mine
(My best friend’s girlfriend)
Oh, yeah yeah yeah
(My best friend’s girlfriend)
She used to be mine
(My best friend’s girlfriend)
(My best friend’s girlfriend)

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Ric Ocasek
My Best Friend’s Girl lyrics © Lido Music Inc., Primary Wave Ocasek

First Public Appearance

Big thanks to Jim Adams for hosting another great Song Lyric Sunday this week and every week. Be sure to follow the link and check out Jim’s site.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to some tunes.

That’s all she wrote, kids. See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, The Rhythm Section, et al., and are not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.



55 thoughts on “The Cars First Public Appearance”

  9. Nancy we were on the same page. If I hadn’t posted this last week…this is the song I would have went with. That album is like a greatest hits!

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      1. Don’t feel alone…I almost forgot and posted it lol. They were such a feel good band and I miss them. I liked your post better anyway.

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  11. I remember how popular the Cars became and although I wasn’t taking care of babies at the time, you couldn’t go anyplace without hearing them. I was going out to clubs to listen to local bands and everyone and their brother was covering the Cars at this time. Great memories, Nancy thanks for sharing your music.

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  13. Here in Aussieland we didn’t hear much about The Cars, but I loved the song, Nancy … back when I was a young fella, I was introduced to a singer called Elton John, and his amazing album “Elton John” (which I always thought was his first album) and being blown away by his breakthrough song “Your Song” … it’s still his best ever album! …

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      1. Thanks Nancy. My MIL was diagnosed with terminal cancel the week after we got back from honeymoon, so the first year of married life was spent visiting her in hospital or helping out when she came home. Sadly when she passed away, my husband was left to sort everything out on his own and shut me out. His siblings, all older, were as useful as chocolate fire guards. FIL remarried within a year. We discovered we had nothing in common and agreed we had made a mistake in getting married. The divorce was straightforward and uncontested, no-one else was involved and I kept in touch with FIL and his new wife for a few years after. That didn’t go down too well with family!!!

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  16. Strange how so many hits contain lyrics added by chance, …if ‘so and so’ hadn’t done this or that,…it amazes me, …but thanks for the chance to listen to this one Nancy, …I’m always ready to have music uplifting my morning, ….💫🤗💫🎶🎼💫

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    1. You’re so right, Penn. After all, a song is 50% lyrics, is it not? And that’s one of the reasons I adore the Beatles; it’s their lyrics as well as their music that are so fantastic! Thanks for an insightful comment, Penn. Enjoy your Sunday evening. 🌃

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  19. Max recently did a write-up on The Cars. It’s nice to see them being brought back for a listen. That’s a good album. Used to have it. I remember being on vacay in TX with my cousin and it was all over the air waves.

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    1. This really is an amazing debut album, Lisa. It was a toss up between this song and “Just What I Needed”; either one would have been good but I’m glad I went with this one. So many memories attached to this song. Thanks so much, Lisa.

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