Cars - Complete Greatest Hits

The ongoing bass pulse with guitar riffs defining their first single "Just What I Needed" gives the girl in the song a lackadaiscal, left-handed compliment as well as visual observations: "I don't mind you coming here, wasting all my time" and "it's not the perfume that you wear/it's not the ribbons in your hair."

The instrumentation and harmonies that accompany "Here she comes again when she's dancing underneath the starry sky" from "My Best Friend's Girl" is a sign of the sound that would explode into hit-mania in Heartbeat City. And "Let The Good Times Roll" with its layered backing vocals was another defining sound with the Cars.

Judging a group solely by the number of Top Forty or Top Ten hits isn't always a good barometer. The Cars didn't have many during their decade-long career, and only four of those hit the Top Ten. And it took till their fourth album, Shake It Up, to do so. The first one of those was "Shake It Up", whose pulsing racing synths and upbeat drums, and Ocasek's quirky voice, which to me is the epitomy of the Cars sound.

"You Might Think" with its pulsing keyboards, rhythm guitar, and heavy guitar, is my second favourite song, and a more produced sound is apparent here without sacrificing the usual Cars sound. I remember this from the video where Ric Ocasek turned into a flying insect. This came from their Heartbeat City, their masterpiece album produced by Mutt Lange. Also from there is my favourite Cars song, their highest charting one, the haunting and sombre Ben Orr-sung ballad "Drive" which got to #3 on the charts abetted by its multiple atmospheric synths. The girl in this song seems in need of a reality check or a fast lifestyle with that refrain "you can't go on thinking nothing's wrong/who's gonna drive you home tonight?" The verses consist of questions to this girl: "who's gonna pay attention to your dreams/who's gonna plug your ears when you scream?" A similar feel was later attained in Orr's solo single hit "Stay The Night."

The #7 "Tonight She Comes" was their fourth and last Top Ten single. The new song from their Greatest Hits, it was just as quick-tempoed as "You Might Think" with a cool guitar solo by Easton, but by 1985, the arrival of new groups and the novelty of New Wave was dying down.

With the exception of "Drive", they didn't seem to have much luck on their moodier songs such as "Since You're Gone" or the keyboard-oriented "I'm Not The One."

Of the other three singles from Heartbeat City, "Magic" scores great with its opening space-age sounds and the hard guitars even though the tempo's a bit slower than "You Might Think." "Hello Again" is good, but its #20 showing denoted that the album was selling more, and was "oversingled" by the time "Why Can't I Have You" was released.

As for their last Top Forty hit, "You Are The Girl", it was more of the same but more polished and programmed. The song itself is more musing and romantic, and lyrical, "why don't you flash that smile like you used to do?" and "You are the girl in my dreams", and I'm partial to it due to the crazy sci-fi/planet of alien women video it spawned.

A more budget-priced and hence hit-efficient compilation compared to the sprawling Just What I Needed anthology, Complete Greatest Hits has the essentials in one disc, with peak positions and release dates for the albums and singles included.


good times roll   October 30, 2005
Russell Foster (usa)
19 out of 27 found this review helpful

I am a die hard 80's music man. This music reflects that the best. This album has almost all there best songs. Kings of new wave pop.


Essential 80s Music   July 24, 2003
Lonnie E. Holder (Sullivan, Illinois United States)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

It's difficult to call The Cars punk or new wave when looking backward from the new millennium. Their music sounds more like classic rock or pop than what we perceive to be punk or new wave. Of course, new wave has pretty much gone back to the primordial music sea, while punk has a meaning well removed from The Cars. Some places now call The Cars' music classic alternative, which is another word for music that was once cutting edge and is now closer to pop or classic rock than to anything we'd now recognize as cutting edge. Call it what you will, once upon a time this music pushed the boundaries of pop music to encompass new styles without being so far removed from the mainstream as to be unacceptable.

Pushing the envelope for the cars meant taking 70s rock, incorporating 50s rock and roll elements, and adding a dose of punk elements. The resulting mixture was often quirky, and nearly always upbeat and fun. "You Might Think," "Let's Go," "You're All I've Got Tonight," and "Magic," among others, all fit this mode. The Cars could also create molasses thick new wave as well, with a goodly dose of keyboards in songs such as "Moving in Stereo" and "Good Times Roll."

While The Cars were accomplished musicians, layering their sound heavily to create heavily orchestrated works, their lyrics were typically complex, and often surreal, nearly always poetic and often emotional, in spite of their often robotic presence in their videos. The Cars had some of the most creative lyrics of any group in the 80s, using words with paint brush dexterity to create colorful images of situations and emotions. Precision in their imagery was infrequent as they wrote with words that could evoke an image to fit the interpreter.

With their catchy, though complex, lyrics, and their new wave flavored music, The Cars were a perfect fit for the early 80s, and rode the crest of popular music until the new wave phenomenon began to wane in the late 80s. This CD captures a good cross-section of The Cars, including most of their biggest hits. Admittedly, there are some B-sides such as Candy-O that were not included, but there is at least one two CD collection that has more, and you can always buy the albums if you like what you hear on this one. This CD is great for casual fans and for those looking for a first sampler before buying more of The Cars catalog. It's also great for those of us that like The Cars and have yet to buy all their CDs.


Truly the Cars "Complete" Greatest Hits   June 22, 2002
Eric Hansen (Denver, CO USA)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

This album is called the "Complete" Greatest Hits because it is an update of the previous Greatest Hits, released prior to their final album, Door To Door. Not only does the earlier release not cover the entire Cars catalog, it was released during the vinyl-era, when it was still common to release cd's containing only 40 to 50 minutes of music to corresponded to their vinyl counterparts. All of the tracks on the original Greatest Hits are here with the exception of the song "Heartbeat City", which seems to have been replaced in favor of "Why Can't I Have You" (why can't we have Heartbeat City is more like it!).

If you are a die-hard or just casual Cars fan considering this purchase, it is a very strong single disk compilation which is literally packed with over 79 minutes of music (the maximum). If you haven't already picked up the "Just What I Needed" 2CD Anthology, you can't go wrong. Everyone has their opinion of what should be on a compiliation album, but based on the wealth of material available, this collection would be hard to improve.

Another reviewer of this album wrote 'I could have done without "Tonight She Comes" and "You Are the Girl", both of which I consider inferior songs and which were not included in the original "Greatest Hits"'. Correction, "Tonight She Comes" was a new song released only on the original Greatest Hits and became a huge hit, while "You Are The Girl" (also a top-ten hit from Door to Door, 1987) was not even written at the time of the original Greatest Hits, 1985. It is unfortunate that "You Are the Girl" is the only inclusion from their final album, Door To Door. The title track or Ta Ta Wayo would have also been worthwhile additions, but there is no room for more!


Complete Version Of The Cars Greatest Hits!   July 18, 2002
Barron Laycock (Temple, New Hampshire United States)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

The Cars were a group destined to be quickly forgotten in terms of who they were, for they lived professional lives that were marginal in the sense that they recorded and toured, but were hardly interested in the hard rock life style. Instead, it is the body of music that they left behind that will be remembered, for they were incredibly successful at turning out song after song, with each dancing its way all the way into the top ten hit list. From "Just What I Needed' to "Since You're Gone", from "You Might Think", from "Good Times Roll" to "Touch And Go", this is a collection of songs that make you want to hear more. And there is plenty more here for your listening enjoyment, from "Drive" to "Tonight She Comes", from "My Best Friend's Girl" to "Heartbeat City", from "let's Go" to "I'm Not The One". My personal favorites here are "Magic", and of course, the terrific "Shake It Up", but all of these songs are great. Enjoy!