When The Cars released their opus Heartbeat City, they supported it by embarking on a massive tour to support the album. Throughout 1984, their popularity would be further bolstered by the hit singles, Magic, Drive, You Might Think, and Hello Again, which burned up the Billboard Hot 100. However, for as successful as the album was, behind the scenes, it was a grueling recording session. Producer Mutt Lange pushed the members of the band to the brink of collapse in an effort to polish the record to perfection. While this was certainly achieved, it left the band a bit shattered.
A rift in the friendship between Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr formed, leaving Ocasek unwilling, or perhaps not desiring to write further songs for the band. In general, all the members were tired from years of recording and touring. The end result was a three year hiatus before they would come back together to record their final (at the time) 1987 album, Door To Door.
In between this, Ocasek returned to the studio to focus on his second solo album, 1986's This Side Of Paradise. Ironically, despite the band not working together on a new album, other members of the band played a significant role in recording tracks. Greg Hawkes plays the bass and keyboards throughout most of the album, and contributed to the writing of, Hello Darkness. Hawkes also provides backing vocals on True To You with Benjamin Orr, while Elliot Easton plays guitars. Orr also provides additional backing vocals on a handful of other tracks. If that weren't enough contributions, there's also assistance from Roland Orzabal (Tears For Fears), Tony Levin (King Crimson), and Chris Hughes (Adam And The Ants).
This Side Of Paradise would spawn two hit singles which peaked on the Billboard Rock Charts; True To You (peaking at number 9), and his biggest hit, Emotion In Motion, which reached number one. The two songs would also hit the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 75 and 15, respectively.
After thoroughly enjoying my playthrough of 1983's Beatitude, I was pretty pumped to dive into this "new" album. I'm happy to say that I was not disappointed.
Much like the previous album, by the mid-way point, I hadn't heard anything that I didn't like. In fact, it kind of made me want to go back and listen to all The Cars albums, which also isn't a bad thing. Mainly because I own them all, and to date have only played through two; 1980's Panorama, and 1984's Hello Again.
Whether it was new wave synth, solid rock with crunchy guitars, or even slower paced ballads, Ocasek delivered on all fronts. I dug This Side Of Paradise from front to back, and I want more.
When I first listened to The Cars 1980 released, Panorama, I admittedly stated that I didn't pay much attention to it, and needed to give it a second chance. So, I think that's exactly what I'm going to do. Start there, and head through them. Maybe I won't do this tomorrow, because I don't want to get fatigued on them, but it's definitely the plan at some point.
I also don't want to sum this one up by dipping back into the history of The Cars. Instead, I'll stay focused on Ocasek's solo career, which he continued throughout the 90's with four albums, and a final in 2005. His final charting single would be 1991's Rockaway, which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Rock Charts. Unfortunately, his music then got lost in the sea of grunge, and sales of his albums ultimately continued to drop as a result.
Ric passed away in 2019 while recovering from surgery, purportedly associated with lung cancer, as told by his estranged wife, Paulina Porizkova. However, based on the coroner's report from the Chief Medical Examiner, Ocasek died of natural causes, but suffered from both hypertensive heart and coronary artery disease. He was buried at Nine Partners Cemetery in Millbrook, New York.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS November 17, 1984 |
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