We’re on a bit of a power pop kick this week, so today’s classic song of the day is that power pop/New Wave classic, “My Best Friend’s Girl” by the Cars. Released in October of 1978, this pre-MTV wonder only hit #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 (although it did go all the way to #3 in the UK), even though it had a much more significant lasting impact.
“My Best Friend’s Girl” was written by Cars singer Ric Ocasek. It was a fairly manufactured tune, not inspired by any particular real life events. Mr. Ocasek explains:
“Nothing in that song happened to me personally. I just figured having a girlfriend stolen was probably something that happened to a lot of people… At some point, I realized my lyrics didn’t include the words ‘My Best Friend’s Girl.’ So I pulled out the lyrics someone had typed up and added a chorus in the margin in pen: ‘She’s my best friend’s girl/She’s my best friend’s girl/But she used to be mine.'”
That worked. “My Best Friend’s Girl” is a catchy little number with a fair number of melodic hooks. The band recorded it in February of 1978 and included it on their self-titled debut album, which came out in June. However, the song actually started to pick up steam a year before the official recording, when a demo tape containing the song, along with “Just What I Needed,” started circulating on Boston radio stations. (The band was from the Boston area.) That greased the wheels, as it were, for signing a record deal with Elektra Records and the official release of the song as the second single from their first album.
The Cars went on to be a major force in the burgeoning New Wave movement, influencing a generation or two of bands with their mix of sterile-sounding synthesizers and more organic guitar-based power pop. When you hear Fountains of Wayne, Weezer, the Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, and similar bands, you’re hearing what they took from Ric Ocazek and the Cars.
The Cars had a number of hits throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, the later ones helped by innovative music videos for the MTV generation. Their biggest hits included “Just What I Needed” (#27, 1978), “Let’s Go” (#14, 1979), “Shake It Up” (#4, 1981), “You Might Think” (#7, 1984), “Magic” (#12, 1984), “Drive” (#3, 1984), “Hello Again” (#20, 1984), “Tonight She Comes” (#7, 1985), and “You Are the Girl” (#17, 1987).
The band broke up in 1988, although there were a few reunions after that. Sadly, singer/bassist Benjamin Orr passed away in 2000 and Ric Ocasek passed in 2019, the latter just about a year after the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
