THE CARS

The Cars formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1976. Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr, who had known each other since Cleveland in the 1960s, had moved to Boston in the early 1970s before assembling the band there with Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes and David Robinson (formerly of the Modern Lovers). Their first show was December 31, 1976, at Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire; through 1977 they played New England clubs, including The Rathskeller in Boston's Kenmore Square.

The band signed to Elektra Records in 1977. Their self-titled debut album (June 6, 1978) reached No. 18 on the Billboard 200 and went 6x platinum, with the singles “Just What I Needed,” “My Best Friend's Girl” and “Good Times Roll.” Candy-O (1979), Panorama (1980) and Shake It Up (1981) followed.

Heartbeat City (March 12, 1984) was their commercial peak — No. 3 on the Billboard 200, 4x platinum, with videos central to early MTV's visual identity: “You Might Think,” “Magic,” “Drive,” “Hello Again.” On September 14, 1984, “You Might Think” won the very first MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year, beating out Michael Jackson's “Thriller.”

Door to Door (1987), their final Elektra album, sold more weakly and reflected internal tension, particularly over songwriting control between Ocasek and Orr. The band broke up in February 1988.

Benjamin Orr died of pancreatic cancer on October 3, 2000, at age 53, before any reunion took place.

In 2010–2011 the four surviving members — Ocasek, Easton, Hawkes and Robinson — reunited; Move Like This (May 10, 2011, Hear Music/Concord) debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, followed by an 11-date spring 2011 tour. On the reunion album, Hawkes covered Orr's bass parts; there was no permanent replacement.

On April 14, 2018, the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at Public Auditorium in Cleveland, inducted by Brandon Flowers of The Killers; the Hall of Fame's own inductee page lists all five classic members, including Orr posthumously. The surviving members performed a three-song set with Weezer's Scott Shriner on bass — Ric Ocasek's final performance with the band. Ocasek died at his Manhattan home on September 15, 2019, at age 75.

There has been no performance or tour under The Cars' name since 2019, and no source suggests one. The three surviving members have pursued separate projects (Easton with The Empty Hearts; Hawkes collaborating with Todd Rundgren). A band biography published in September 2025 (Bill Janovitz, The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told) reports that the three surviving members are working with unreleased Ocasek studio recordings toward a possible posthumous release — for now, this is only a reported possibility, with no format or date announced.