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.