The Cars--Just What I Needed (1978)

     There are many who consider The Cars early new wave. I've always resisted that label because they were always too rock and roll. The trio of "Just What I Needed", "My Best Friend's Girl", and "Good Times Roll" on their first album was as good as rock got in the late 70's. The sound just leaped out of the speakers, and almost 35 years ago, that blend of straight rock with the use of the keys and synths still sticks in the ear.
     The group had their beginnings in Columbus, Ohio, where Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr began playing as a duo. The pair thought Boston would be a better place to be discovered and relocated there in 1973. They hooked up with Greg Hawkes who along with guitarist Jas Goodkind founded the group, Milkwood who released an album, "Paramount", which went nowhere.
     After floating around with several other bands, Ocasek and Orr hooked up with Ellot Easton and with Hawkes and David Robinson form The Cars in 1976. They recorded a demo of this song and started floating around the radio stations in Boston, and one of them, on station WBCN, began playing it regularty. By virtue of this, Elektra Records signed them to a contract.
      The debut album, simply named, "The Cars" was released in 1978 and has to be considered one of the best albums of the 70's. Hawkes synth lines danced over and punctuated the straight up rock, which was catchy and fresh. None of the single all of the album reached the top 20, although the album did reach #18. "Just What I Needed" rose to #27 in the summer of 1978, but it set the pattern for the group, and they would breakthrough in a massive way during the early 80's. For my money however, the album was the best made by the group, and became one of the most enduring and fresh sounds of the late 70's.

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Sunday Morning Vault: The Buggles--Video Killed The Radio Star (1979)

     There are a lot of misconceptions about this song. As you can see from the title of the blog, it was released in 1979, although it really didn't enter the consciousness of the American public until the creation of MTV. It actually did very well on the charts around the world, hitting #1 in 16 different countries, including the UK. It barely scraped the top 40 here, but the "New Wave" as it was being called then had not fully taken hold yet in the states.
      It's biggest claim to fame was that it opened the launch of MTV on August 1, 1981. Just like other historical events, many have claimed to have seen it (and thanks to You Tube...you actually CAN see the first hour of it's broadcast). However, at the time, very few were able to watch it because so few had cable, and even fewer had MTV as a part of their package. The night of it's premiere, the VJ's and executives had to have a party over in New Jersey, because no cable company in New York City actually carried the network.
      The ironic thing is that for all of the trivia, it's a brilliant song, as is the album that accompanied it, "The Age of Plastic". The concept album was based on a couple of books and a silent film (1925's, "The Plastic Age"), and delved into nostalgia and uneasiness about technology and our future in it. "Video Killed The Radio Star" had to do with radio stars of the 40's being supplanted by television, however, given the nature of the rest of the album, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downs had to also be looking into the future as well.
     Horn and Downs went on to stellar careers. Trevor recorded as an artist with Yes, and The Art of Noise. He received a Grammy for producing the single, "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal, and has a stake in a record and music publishing company. Downs was a member of Yes for a short time and Asia during their best years. He has continued to play keyboards for a number of groups over the years.

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The Buckinghams--Kind of a Drag (1966)

     The Buckinghams were a local group from Chicago who had a string of top 20 hits for a a year, from Dec. of 66 to Dec. of 67.
     They were first known as the Pulsations and were the house band on WGN-TV's, "All-Time Hits". It was during that year (1966) that the producer of the TV show suggested a name change that would reflect the British Invasion. They were a record deal late that year, and released, "Kind of a Drag" which reached #1 for a couple of weeks to start out the new year. Including that song, they reached the top 15 with four other songs in 1967, but didn't do much after that. The band dissolved in 1970, reformed in 1980, and have been recording and touring ever since.

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