The Cars’ infectious choruses and unique fusion of new wave and classic rock might make you want to sing along. The band was eventually given the necessary credit for their efforts in 2018 when they were admitted into the famous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Killers’ lead vocalist Brandon Flowers gave the formal induction speech and talked about how much The Cars inspired him when he was a young guy.
Flowers said, “It was 1994, and I was a 13-year-old misfit kid living in a small town smack-dab in the middle of Utah. We’re talking no stop light small. We’re talking settle our differences at the water tower after school small. Sometimes, it even felt a little untouched by the previous four, five decades, like everything was still in black and white. My brother, Shane, had 12 years on me and the intuition to come and swoop me up on weekends. I’d stay at his house up in Spanish Fork, another thriving Utah metropolis about an hour’s drive up the I-15, and on those critical and impressionable rescue missions, he’d play me his music. There were a lot of great bands passed on to me by my brother, and there had been many more since, but The Cars were the first band I ever fell in love with, and you never forget your first.”
Since their brief 12-show reunion tour in support of Move Like This in 2011, The Cars hadn’t performed live as a group. Additionally, it was the group’s first appearance in front of an audience since their separation in 1987. The band members performed a four-song performance during the RRHOF induction, including “My Best Friend’s Girl,” “You Might Think,” “Moving in Stereo,” and “Just What I Needed.” It is still the only time the band has ever performed together live.
The Cars’ rendition of “Just What I Needed” may be seen here.
