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"The Cars": Ric Ocasek/Benjamin Orr (1 Viewer)

Ocasek

  • Good Times Roll

    Votes: 15 13.8%
  • My Best Friend's Girl

    Votes: 18 16.5%
  • You're All I've Got Tonight

    Votes: 30 27.5%
  • You Might Think

    Votes: 12 11.0%
  • Since You're Gone

    Votes: 6 5.5%
  • Magic

    Votes: 6 5.5%
  • Tonight She Comes

    Votes: 5 4.6%
  • Shake It Up

    Votes: 3 2.8%
  • Touch and Go

    Votes: 9 8.3%
  • Other

    Votes: 5 4.6%

  • Total voters
    109
Ric had the more distinctive vocal style and was more representative of/associated with The Cars’ signature sound (at least from their peak of popularity). A fair amount of Ric’s notoriety also came from the hits that got a lot of play on Mtv during its heyday. However, I generally prefer the songs that Orr fronted (Just What I Needed, Drive, Let’s Go).

 
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I voted Benjamin  and think Ric would vote the same way as well. Ben is in a handful of my favorite vocalists all time, so underrated 

All Mixed Up . Number two would be Cruiser for me

Dangerous Type is my favorite Ric Ocasek lead. Structurally i’s very similar to All Mixed Up 

 
my top 5 Car toons ..

5) All Mixed Up

4) Touch n' Go

3) Since Your Gone

2) It's All I Can Do

1) Shoo Be Do/Candy O (gotta couple 'em, greatest bleed in i evah heard)

looks dead even ... 3 apiece, given Ric's vox Shoo Be, Orr on Candy - guess i kinda lean Benji seeing as how he has 2 of my top three ... but, man - love 'em both. 

 
my top 5 Car toons ..

5) All Mixed Up

4) Touch n' Go

3) Since Your Gone

2) It's All I Can Do

1) Shoo Be Do/Candy O (gotta couple 'em, greatest bleed in i evah heard)

looks dead even ... 3 apiece, given Ric's vox Shoo Be, Orr on Candy - guess i kinda lean Benji seeing as how he has 2 of my top three ... but, man - love 'em both. 
I honestly don't think I've ever noticed that bleed in. Huh. That goes on the listening list. High praise.

 
"New Wave & Coke"  (in block italics) is my next neck piece  :clap:
Your next neck piece? How you going to pull that one off? You got a guy?

btw, the Cars are severely under appreciated by many, myself included ... i never realized how much i love them until i realize how much i love them. 
Hear ya on that. But The Cars are appreciated when it matters (well, on Rhino comps, anyway). They're one of the great power pop bands of the seventies/early 80s, and there were a lot of those. They could sure write a song. Probably the best pop-rock band out of Boston in the seventies/early eighties (the best band overall going to Mission Of Burma). And yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Aerosmith. The Cars write circles around you guys. 

 
i picked equal just to make Ben spin a li'bit. cuz i just know he's down there STILL trying to figure out why he wasn't as big as Sting......."i sing better, i play bass better, i'm American, i'm waaaay hotter"...................... i knew all these guys before Cars cuz i was friends w Greg Hawkes (Cars keyboard+) since he was in school (almost 50 yrs ago now) and Orr could have been a lot more fun if he wasn't constantly trying to figure out why you didn't adore him more. "Drive" still makes me cry, but i'll never let him know that....

 
Hear ya on that. But The Cars are appreciated when it matters (well, on Rhino comps, anyway). They're one of the great power pop bands of the seventies/early 80s, and there were a lot of those. They could sure write a song. Probably the best pop-rock band out of Boston in the seventies/early eighties (the best band overall going to Mission Of Burma). And yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Aerosmith. The Cars write circles around you guys. 
+ 50 ####### bajillion on the Aerosmiff comment - PREACH!

i picked equal just to make Ben spin a li'bit. cuz i just know he's down there STILL trying to figure out why he wasn't as big as Sting......."i sing better, i play bass better, i'm American, i'm waaaay hotter"...................... i knew all these guys before Cars cuz i was friends w Greg Hawkes (Cars keyboard+) since he was in school (almost 50 yrs ago now) and Orr could have been a lot more fun if he wasn't constantly trying to figure out why you didn't adore him more. "Drive" still makes me cry, but i'll never let him know that....
i heart you on many occasions, this being another  :wub:

 
:scared:

Todd and The New Cars experiment. 

Never had a chance to get off the ground and likely didn't have a great chance to catch on with the hard core Cars fans.  

Not Tonight was an original that intended to echo the original Cars.  I liked them, but everyone there but Easton is Todd's touring band ...so yeah, I like'em a lot.   :)

 
i picked equal just to make Ben spin a li'bit. cuz i just know he's down there STILL trying to figure out why he wasn't as big as Sting......."i sing better, i play bass better, i'm American, i'm waaaay hotter"...................... i knew all these guys before Cars cuz i was friends w Greg Hawkes (Cars keyboard+) since he was in school (almost 50 yrs ago now) and Orr could have been a lot more fun if he wasn't constantly trying to figure out why you didn't adore him more. "Drive" still makes me cry, but i'll never let him know that....
He was right

 
Your next neck piece? How you going to pull that one off? You got a guy?

Hear ya on that. But The Cars are appreciated when it matters (well, on Rhino comps, anyway). They're one of the great power pop bands of the seventies/early 80s, and there were a lot of those. They could sure write a song. Probably the best pop-rock band out of Boston in the seventies/early eighties (the best band overall going to Mission Of Burma). And yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Aerosmith. The Cars write circles around you guys. 
HOT TAKE :Aerosmith is not even in the top 20 bands from Boston 

 
Ben was my uncle (by marriage). Wikkid is right- Ben was kind of an ### back in the day. Later on, my brother and my mom went to see him play, probably a couple years before he died (I couldn't go for some reason). They said he had mellowed out considerably, and was much more down to Earth. I know my brother still has a couple of reel-to-reels of Cap'n Swing, which was the band Ric and Ben were in before The Cars.

As far as who was the better vocalist, they both knew Ben had the better voice, and divvied up the music accordingly.

 
my top 5 Car toons ..

5) All Mixed Up

4) Touch n' Go

3) Since Your Gone

2) It's All I Can Do

1) Shoo Be Do/Candy O (gotta couple 'em, greatest bleed in i evah heard)

looks dead even ... 3 apiece, given Ric's vox Shoo Be, Orr on Candy - guess i kinda lean Benji seeing as how he has 2 of my top three ... but, man - love 'em both. 
1-All Mixed Up

2-Cruiser

3-Dangerous Type

4-You Wear Those Eyes

5-Bye Bye Love

 
Voted Orr. Love his voice. Have both his solo albums (one of which was never officially released).

There are tons of unreleased Cars (and related) demos on YouTube. I really like this take on Buddy Holly.

 
my top 5 Car toons ..

5) All Mixed Up

4) Touch n' Go

3) Since Your Gone

2) It's All I Can Do

1) Shoo Be Do/Candy O (gotta couple 'em, greatest bleed in i evah heard)

looks dead even ... 3 apiece, given Ric's vox Shoo Be, Orr on Candy - guess i kinda lean Benji seeing as how he has 2 of my top three ... but, man - love 'em both. 
Touch and Go could be the most underrated of the songs Ric sang on. And Candy O might just be their best overall song.

 
Touch and Go could be the most underrated of the songs Ric sang on. And Candy O might just be their best overall song.
Toch n' Go also a video vanguard, what with the soul less, mannequin-like babes milling about ... Robert Palmer was watching, i'm sure. 

Candy-O defies categorizations- it just might be the pinnacle of American rock from that era ... it's an incredible, dizzying aural sculpture.  sheeesh. 

 
Gotta drop these in my cd carousels ...refresher is most needed after 3-4 months off rotation. 1st impression is that both are equal.   

 
What a fantastic poll.  And it's so cool that two regulars knew Ben Orr (or Hawkes in wikkid's case).  I didn't, but man do I miss that guy; I was really sad when he passed away.   I thought he was a terrific singer and an underrated bass player.  

I agree that he was a better bass player than Sting and suspect that Sting might agree.**  (Coincidentally, I was listening to Every Little Thing last night and thinking about how Sting was never that expansive of a bassist.)  On vocals, Sting is pretty hard to surpass, but Ben Orr's voice was really, really, really good. 

I agree completely that most people - myself included - know Ric's vocals better because he was more prominent on the MTV-era songs, Drive excepted.  I remember going back as a kid and getting their earlier stuff on cassette and thinking that Ric sounded quite different on Just What I Needed and Bye Bye Love.  :lol:

Thanks for this poll, EB. 

**A lot of people think Sting has a huge ego but whatever the case, he's been pretty open over the years in press about how he has struggled at times with singing and playing bass simultaneously.  His bass talents IMO were mostly concentrated in the areas of leaving space and atmospherics, which, since Summers and Copeland had similar styles on their instruments, makes The Police the most ethereral-sounding power trio ever.      

 
What a fantastic poll.  And it's so cool that two regulars knew Ben Orr (or Hawkes in wikkid's case).  I didn't, but man do I miss that guy; I was really sad when he passed away.   I thought he was a terrific singer and an underrated bass player.  

I agree that he was a better bass player than Sting and suspect that Sting might agree.**  (Coincidentally, I was listening to Every Little Thing last night and thinking about how Sting was never that expansive of a bassist.)  On vocals, Sting is pretty hard to surpass, but Ben Orr's voice was really, really, really good. 

I agree completely that most people - myself included - know Ric's vocals better because he was more prominent on the MTV-era songs, Drive excepted.  I remember going back as a kid and getting their earlier stuff on cassette and thinking that Ric sounded quite different on Just What I Needed and Bye Bye Love.  :lol:

Thanks for this poll, EB. 

**A lot of people think Sting has a huge ego but whatever the case, he's been pretty open over the years in press about how he has struggled at times with singing and playing bass simultaneously.  His bass talents IMO were mostly concentrated in the areas of leaving space and atmospherics, which, since Summers and Copeland had similar styles on their instruments, makes The Police the most ethereral-sounding power trio ever.      
love the police....solo sting i can live without....there is so much going on in the police tunes....especially from copeland

 
Another underrated band IMO. Maybe it's just me but when thinking about all time greats from that era they aren't among the first I consider, but I enjoy almost everything they've done. 

I voted equal, but just looking at the songs listed I like Orr's list slightly more.

 
Another underrated band IMO. Maybe it's just me but when thinking about all time greats from that era they aren't among the first I consider, but I enjoy almost everything they've done. 

I voted equal, but just looking at the songs listed I like Orr's list slightly more.
Yeah, they are fantastic. I think because they were so synth heavy, had so many hits and were so prominent on MTV that when the GnR, Metallica and then grunge eras came they wrote the Cars off as cheesy 80s throwaway music. In retrospect, we know that they weren't cheesy, weren't throwaway, their music holds ups as well if not better than lots of the harder bands that came later. I would say their is a case to be made The Cars ended up being one of the most influential bands of the late 70s/80s. I think if you listen to the direction rock music went in the 00s-now, there is much more The Cars sound than say Van Halen or GnR. Also, they are on the shortlist for best debut album of all time. Bands would be headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame if their greatest hits album contained:

Good Times Roll, My Best Friend's Girl, Just What I Needed, Don't Cha Stop, You're All I've Got Tonight, Bye Bye Love and Moving in Stereo.Those were all just on The Cars debut album. Pretty freaking fantastic. 

 
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