Ric Ocasek – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

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.

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

Cars – Let The Good Times Roll

This song was on The Car’s great debut album that just keeps giving. “Good Times Roll” was released as the third single from the album.

Ric Ocasek wrote and sang lead on this song. None of the songs were huge hits but 6 songs off of the album still get played on radio today. Rolling Stone also ranked the album No. 284 in its “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list.

This song peaked at #41 in the Billboard 100 and #74 in Canada in 1979.

Ric Ocasek: “I just remember when we did ‘Good Times Roll’ in the studio in England on the first record, and we heard back the vocals. I told Roy that I thought it was way, way too much. … But you know, it grew on me later and it sounded so smooth. It was a nice process to do it because Roy, you know, was fortunate enough to have a 40-track machine … so he could do layering of vocals a lot.”

Good Times Roll

Let the good times roll
Let them knock you around
Let the good times roll
Let them make you a clown

Let them leave you up in the air
Let them brush your rock and roll hair

Let the good times roll
Let the good times roll
Let the good times roll

Let the stories be told
They can say what they want
Let the photos be old
Let them show what they want

Let them leave you up in the air
Let them brush your rock and roll hair
Let the good times roll
Let the good times roll-oll
Won’t you let the good times roll

Good times roll

If the illusion is real
Let them give you a ride
If they got thunder appeal
Let them be on your side

Let them leave you up in the air
Let them brush your rock and roll hair
Let the good times roll
Won’t you let the good times roll-oll
Let the good times roll

Let the good times roll
Won’t you let the good times roll
Well let the good times roll
Let ’em roll (good times roll)

Let the good times roll
Let the good times roll
Ooh let the good times roll
Let ’em roll (good times roll)

Let the good times roll
(Let the good times roll)
Let the good times roll
Good times roll
(Let the good times roll)
Let the good times roll
Let ’em roll

Weezer – Island In The Sun —Powerpop Friday

This was the second single from their self-titled Weezer album in 2001, but it almost didn’t make the album producer Ric Ocasek fought for it and the song ended up being a radio hit in the UK. I remember listening to it on an alternative station here in Nashville.

The song peaked at #8 on the Billboard Alternative chart and #31 in the UK.

This is the most-licensed track in the Weezer catalog. Frontman Rivers Cuomo said: “The funny thing is, the song wasn’t a real radio hit. I can only speculate that it’s because the song has a cleaner guitar sound, which makes it easier for a more mainstream audience.”

From Songfacts

Weezer started recording this on January 1, 2001 at Cello Studios in Los Angeles, which used to be a part of Western Studios, where Frank Sinatra, The Mamas And The Papas and The Beach Boys all recorded. Sometime in April 2001, someone stole a copy of the master tapes and leaked the album on the Internet in unfinished form. >>

Two different videos were made for this song. One shows the band playing at a Mexican wedding, and the other, more popular version shows the band cavorting with different wild animals. This version was directed by Spike Jonze.

In 2006, Emma Roberts covered this for the soundtrack of Aquamarine.

In late 2001, the band began playing this in concert with a reworked version of the solo. In 2005, Rivers Cuomo would play this by himself on an acoustic guitar to open their encores.

Island In The Sun

hip hip
hip hip
hip hip
hip hip

When you’re on a holiday
You can’t find the words to say
All the things that come to you
And I wanna feel it too

On an island in the sun
We’ll be playing and having fun
And it makes me feel so fine
I can’t control my brain

hip hip
hip hip

When you’re on a golden sea
You don’t need no memory
Just a place to call your own
As we drift into the zone

On an island in the sun
We’ll be playing and having fun
And it makes me feel so fine
I can’t control my brain

We’ll run away together
We’ll spend some time forever
We’ll never feel bad anymore

hip hip
hip hip
hip hip

On an island in the sun
We’ll be playing and having fun
And it makes me feel so fine
I can’t control my brain

We’ll run away together
We’ll spend some time forever
We’ll never feel bad any more

Hip hip

We’ll never feel bad anymore
(hip hip)
(hip hip)
No no
(hip hip)
(hip hip)
We’ll never feel bad anymore
(hip hip)
In a island in the sun

Ric Ocasek found dead today

Sad news from New York tonight. Ric Ocasek was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Sunday, law enforcement confirmed. Some reports say he was 75 and some say he was 70.

Ric wrote some of the best pop hits of the late seventies and eighties for the Cars. The Cars were a big part of my teenage years.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Ric-Ocasek-Cars-Singer-Dead-in-NY-at-75-560430391.html

https://pagesix.com/2019/09/15/the-cars-frontman-ric-ocasek-found-dead-in-manhattan-townhouse/