{"id":29006,"date":"2024-03-13T12:03:35","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T12:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/the-cars-heartbeat-city-turns-40\/"},"modified":"2024-03-13T12:03:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T12:03:35","slug":"the-cars-heartbeat-city-turns-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/101gold\/the-cars-heartbeat-city-turns-40\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cars\u2019 ‘Heartbeat City’ turns 40"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Electra Records\/Rhino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was 40 years ago March 13 that The Cars<\/strong> released their fifth studio album, <\/span>Heartbeat City<\/span><\/em>, which was a blockbuster hit for the group.<\/span><\/p>\n

Considered by many to be the band\u2019s comeback album, <\/span>Heartbeat City,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>produced by Mutt Lange<\/strong>, resulted in huge mainstream success for\u00a0The Cars, with the album peaking at #3 on the <\/span>Billboard<\/span><\/em> 200 Album chart and hitting #1 on the <\/span>Billboard<\/span><\/em> Rock Album chart. It went on to be certified four-times Platinum by the RIAA.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Much of the album\u2019s popularity was due to singles like \u201c<\/span>You Might Think<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u201d and \u201c<\/span>Drive<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u201d both of which reached the <\/span>Billboard<\/span><\/em> Hot 100 top 10.<\/span><\/p>\n

They both\u00a0benefited from videos that received huge airplay on MTV, especially \u201cYou Might Think,\u201d which was known for being one of the first videos to use computer graphics.\u00a0The video had frontman Ric Ocasek<\/strong> following a model around in various places, with the\u00a0graphics\u00a0turning him into, among other things, a fly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very striking for its time,\u201d Craig Marks<\/strong>, co-author of <\/span>I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution<\/span><\/em>, tells ABC Audio, although he notes Ocasek \u201cfamously didn’t like the video. He thought it made fun of the way he looked, cause he kind of did look like a fly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering not many artists were making videos at the time, MTV embraced \u201cYou Might Think\u201d and the video went on to win the first-ever Video of the Year award at the MTV Video Music Awards.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It\u00a0was a great meeting of commerce and art for The Cars and for MTV,\u201d\u00a0Marks says of the clip, noting it \u201cdid wonders for The Cars\u2019 career.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n