Cars – My Best Friend’s Girl

This song is from The Cars’1978 great debut album. This album has been known by fans as their “greatest hits.” It was one of the best debut rock albums ever released. It is a power pop masterpiece. They were all simple songs, but totally effective. The album contained Good Times Roll, My Best Friend’s Girl, Just What I Needed, Moving In Stereo, and Bye Bye Love. All of which still gets played. 

This song is full of catchy hooks, but what makes it special to me is guitarist Elliot Easton’s rockabilly licks flowing through it. Ric Ocasek wrote and sang the song, which peaked at #44 in the Billboard 100, #3 in the UK, and #55 in Canada in 1978. Speaking of Elliot Easton, he was their secret weapon. The guy could have made any song catchy by just inserting his guitar licks. 

The song sounds both old (Easton’s licks) and modern with Greg Hawke’s synthesizer in the background. Hawke would color a song but hardly ever take it over. It’s been covered by multiple artists, featured in films and TV shows, and still sounds fresh. 

The album The Cars peaked at #18 on the Billboard Album Charts, #50 on the Canadian Album Charts, #29 in the UK, and in New Zealand it peaked at #5 in 1978. It seems New Zealand appreciated it much more and realized they were here to stay. They were one of the few power pop bands that had a somewhat long career. The two singers were usually Ric Ocasek (who was also the main songwriter) and bass player Benjamin Orr. Their voices were very similar. 

Below, Ocasek explains how he wrote the song. 

Ric Ocasek: 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. I wrote the words and music at the same time: “You’re always dancing down the street / with your suede blue eyes / And every new boy that you meet / he doesn’t know the real surprise.” The “suede blue eyes” line was a play on Carl Perkins’s “Blue Suede Shoes.” When I wrote, “You’ve got your nuclear boots / and your drip-dry glove,” I envisioned the boots and gloves as a cool ’50s fashion statement.

As for the last lines—“And when you bite your lip / it’s some reaction to love”—they were an emotional gesture. I was reading a lot of poets then. 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. I liked the twist. Up until that point, you think the singer stole his best friend’s girl based on how good he feels about her: “When she’s dancing ’neath the starry sky / she’ll make you flip.”

With the last line of the chorus, “But she used to be mine,” you realize the guy didn’t steal his best friend’s girl—his friend stole her away from him.

My Best Friend’s Girl

You’re always dancing down the street
With your suede blue eyes
And every new boy that you meet
He doesn’t know the real surprise
Here she comes again
When she’s dancing ‘neath the starry sky
She’ll make you flip
Here she comes again
When she’s dancing ‘neath the starry sky
You kinda like the way she dips
She’s my best friend’s girl
She’s my best friend’s girl
And she used to be mine
You’ve got your nuclear boots
And your drip dry glove
And when you bite your lip
It’s some reaction to love

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

71 thoughts on “Cars – My Best Friend’s Girl”

  3. Pretty good song and like you suggest, one of the best debut albums ever. Very few albums have three or four non-single, album cuts that play regularly on radio but this one does

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      2. Their biggest hit on this album was Just What I Needed and it was #27. I chalk it up as being a new band…that is the only thing I can think of. They didn’t get a top ten until Shake It Up.

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  5. There’s a riff in there that reminds me of The Beatles’ song ‘Words of love’, from Beatles for Sale album. And the guy’s voice is quite like David Byrne from Talking Heads. Otherwise, I’m only really vaguelly familiar with The Cars. I’ll have heard them on the radio, but was probably listening to other music at the time (can’t remember what. I’ll have to think about it!)

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    1. You know…I never thought about it but I wonder if they were played as much over there? Very short power pop songs is what they produced…very likable. Both singers sound very similiar…the bass player did the vocals on most of their hits.
      I’m working on the email!

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      1. Yes, I think they were played here a lot, but I was probably just listening to other stuff at the time.

        I realised after I sent it that the email was wayyyy too long, sorry!

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    1. If this would have been the future music of the 80s…Max would have been much happier! Yea I love this first album.

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      1. Lol…aaahhh…I just discovered ‘Lithium’ on XM & I’m surprised at how many of those 90’s ‘Grunge’ & alternative songs that I loved back then. The complete antithesis of the electrified 80’s ‘Synthetic’ music that I loved & you hated.

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    1. I’ve passed some down to Bailey as well…I still love vinyl. What makes me like these guys is Elliott on guitar…those rockabilly licks.

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  10. I remember hearing this song when I was in TX on a vacay to see family. Great song, great album. I like all of their up songs, but my favorite is probably Benjamin Orr singing the torch song, “Drive.”

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    1. Orr was the guy in the band that looked like a rock star. I liked his singing a lot. He died way too young. I saw that his son just graduated from college around 5 years ago.

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  13. Pingback: Cars – My Best Friend’s Girl – MobsterTiger

  14. I don’t remember this song in real time. I think “Let’s Go” was the first song of theirs that I was aware of. I had a few records, but the vast majority of my music came from AM radio. There was a period when I was without a radio, and as a result, missed some stuff. Could have been during that time. Have made up for it in the years since, hearing it endlessly on classic radio.

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    1. The problem I have with classic radio is they suddenly think that some bands only had one song! And they play that one song to death without touch on…even the other hits. With Bob Seger…it’s around 3-4 songs that you hear period.

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      1. Yeah, don’t get me started on that subject. I’m a deep cuts kind of person anyway. I mean, hits are great, but let’s explore a little more.

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  18. Crazy how the album was big here first. We’re often behind the curve but it really hit big here. I guess I simply assumed at the time they were massive at home? They have that clean 50s spare sound but still sounded modern at the time. That is quite the trick.

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    1. Yea that surprised me about New Zealand…you were ahead of the curve on this one. Not even a top ten hit here out of all of those songs. Totally likeable songs without being too sugary.

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    1. I’ve had a lot of UK people over today that really likes the Cars…I never would have thought they were that big there. Tom Petty and a few others just didn’t grab the UK much…but hey I’m happy.

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      1. They were bigger here as a singles band, I think. I have all of their albums.

        Tom had a fair amount of success here. Most of his albums charted, some quite high, and he had a few Gold and Silver discs, plus a Platinum for his first Greatest Hits album. Another whose records are all in my collection.

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      2. I go to a site called UK #1’s and I like seeing the difference between periods.
        I’m still baffled on why Slade, T-Rex, and The Jam didn’t do as well here. Much better than what hit here at times. I’ll include Status Quo as well.

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  20. Being in the UK I have access to our Official Charts Company website, which has details of every act that has ever made our charts. A veritable mine of useful information!

    There are loads of bands which made it big on one side of the pond but not the other. Just look at the likes of Three Dog Night, Christopher Cross, etc. I’ve never understood why the Quo didn’t make it there, as they did just about everywhere else!

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    1. Status Quo DID sound universal…never complicated songs like Queen just basic rock and roll that I liked. The only one we heard really was Matchstick Men. I posted a couple of their songs…one off of their first album I believe. Ice In The Sun and one later on called Down Down.

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      1. Matchstick Men was their first single, back when they were a psychedelic band with the shirts to match. I think it was their only hit single there. They then went to three chord boogie and sold millions. Down Down was a #1 here – memories of air guitar sessions in the communal uni kitchen when it came on the radio.

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      3. One of the things I like about them is that they never took themselves too seriously. After all the comments about their three chords they ‘borrowed’ an album title from the Moody Blues, which in their hands became ‘In Search Of The Fourth Chord.’

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  21. this album and this band, probably along with Blondie and well, Cream Magazine changed a lot of things….and the whole album, yeah I know the Tom Verlaine/Television comparisons…Moving in Stereo was a hidden gem for me, but that was an album where every song was like a new discovery, and helped make pop cool again.

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    1. It really did…simple songs and we were just talking about guitar players in Becker…I love Elliot Easton. The guy plays for the song and puts the most tasteful licks in.
      Cream Magazine…it’s been a while since I thought of that.

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      2. It’s my favorite decade to look back on. MUCH better than the 80s. I was a kid in the seventies and a teen through the 80s. I hated synth pop so yea…I’m a 60s and 70s guy.

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    1. Other than Baby Blue…I would say yes! It has a bit of everything!
      Stewart….thanks for being patient with me. You know I will be there. We are broke this weekend lol…so I’ll be at home.

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      2. My pleasure! I just mentioned you to Clive today…but I think he already hits your site. I didn’t know the Cars were well known over there.

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      3. Yeah Clive’s a regular. In the UK, ‘My Best Friends Girl’ was a #3. The first I heard of the Cars was ‘Drive’, which feels like a classic rock staple. That was a #4 in the UK too.

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      4. Wow… I’m beginning to think they were more popular there. Yes I remember that song…it was huge here.

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  23. I always loved this band and have been collecting there stuff on vinyl. Ocasek is a power pop genius Max. Panorama is still my fav album of there’s as thats when I discovered them when I was 13 when I bought the 45 of Touch and Go!
    I liked the quirkiness RIc brought to the tunes and he even brought some of that when he produced the first Weezer album. That record to me is full of Car-ism’s!

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    1. They brought in so many different things to the table. Yes the quirkiness in a then modern sound. One of the best guitar players I know…lists his favorite guitar players like this… 1. Eric Clapton 2. Elliot Easton…. no joke…the guy is that good. I think they had ever genre liking them.

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  24. Great song! It’s funny when it comes to The Cars, I immediately recognize their name and think Ric Ocasek but then feel I really don’t much of anything about them. But once I remind myself how many of their songs I’ve heard on the radio, I’m like, ‘yeah, of course, I knew these dudes.’ As such, The Cars may well be the group I know best among the music acts I think I don’t know – not sure whether that makes much sense! 😂

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    1. Yes it does…I’m like that with Steely Dan…I know their songs but don’t know them. I don’t know the Car’s history much but they did have some great power pop radio songs….and unlike the others…they lasted for a while!

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  25. great record, it did so well in the UK as it fit nicely into the New Wave scene and it got pushed with newly-popular picture disc/coloured vinyl singles, which were being used as sales incentives to get a chart slot which led to Top Of The Pops TV appearances and radio play.

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    1. That surprised me on how well it did over there by them. Some American bands don’t make it there was well…like John Mellencamp and others…so I was happy about the Cars.

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