Cars (song)


"Cars" is a song by English musician Gary Numan. His debut single, it was released as the lead single from his debut studio album, The Pleasure Principle, on 21 August 1979. It reached the top of the charts in several countries, and today is considered a new wave staple.
The song was the first release credited solely to Gary Numan after he dropped the band name Tubeway Army, under which name he had released four singles and two LPs, including the number one UK hit "Are 'Friends' Electric?", and its parent album, Replicas. Musically, the new song was somewhat lighter and more pop-oriented than its predecessors, Numan later conceding that he had chart success in mind: "This was the first time I had written a song with the intention of 'maybe it could be a hit single'; I was writing this before 'Are "Friends" Electric?' happened." He has since described "Cars" as "a pretty average song".
In the UK charts, it reached number 1 in 1979, and in 1980 hit number 1 in Canada two weeks running on the RPM national singles chart. It was his only single to chart there. It rose to number 9 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Though Numan had a string of hits in the UK, "Cars" was his only song in the US Hot 100.

Composition

"Cars" is based on two musical sections: a verse/instrumental break and a bridge. The recording features a conventional rock rhythm section of bass guitar and drums, although the rest of the instruments used are analogue synthesisers, principally the Minimoog and the Polymoog keyboard, providing austere synthetic string lines over the bass riff. The bridge section also includes a tambourine part. Numan's vocal part is sung in an almost expressionless, synthesized style. There is no "chorus" as such. The song becomes instrumental from the 1:30-point until its conclusion.
According to Numan, the song's lyrics were inspired by an incident of road rage:

Music video

The music video featured Numan's then-current backing band, including Billy Currie from the band Ultravox, though he had not actually played on the recording of "Cars". It is perhaps notable that the video for "Cars" depicts no images of actual cars. At 2:43 in the video, five Gary Numans appear to be "driving" along a Polymoog keyboard.

Release

The original UK single was released in August 1979, backed with a non-album instrumental track called "Asylum". The US B-side was "Metal", from The Pleasure Principle album. The track has been a UK Top 20 hit for Numan in 3 successive decades: on its original release in 1979 ; in 1987 as the 'E Reg Model' remix ; and again in 1996 following its use in an advertisement for Carling Premier beer. Numan has regularly performed the song on stage since its original release and it appears on all but one of his official live albums to date.

Track listing

  1. "Cars" – 3:44
  2. "Asylum" – 2:30

    US Version

  3. "Cars" – 3:57
  4. "Metal" – 3:31

    Personnel

Weekly singles charts

Chart 1Peak
position
Ireland 23
UK 16

Chart 2Peak
position
UK 17

Live versions and remixes

A selected list of Numan's official live recordings and remixes.
Numan performed "Cars" using a set of two dozen automobiles and their horns in an innovative 2010 commercial for DieHard. All of the cars were powered from one single battery. James Frost of Zoo Films directed the video, and Synn Labs, which had previously worked with the band OK Go, engineered the cars.

Fear Factory cover

, an American heavy metal band, recorded a version of "Cars" and released it as the second single from their third studio album, Obsolete. The song was only included as a bonus track on the limited edition digipak re-release of Obsolete and would be instrumental in breaking Fear Factory into the mainstream. In their rendition, Gary Numan performs a duet with frontman Burton C. Bell.

Background and recording

According to Bell, around 1996, the band started performing "Cars" as an encore at European concerts. Word spread that Fear Factory was performing the song and as a result Gary Numan's manager contacted them. Upon request, Numan's management flew him out to the Vancouver studio for a three-day span to record vocals on "Cars." The band also asked Numan to record a spoken word piece for the introduction of Obsolete.
Numan had a long-standing dislike for being associated with what he perceived as dated music, and this initially made him apprehensive of working with Fear Factory until realizing "there was a chance that it could introduce me to a new generation of people who didn't know my history. And that can be useful, because my music's got a lot heavier and darker anyway." The result would be satisfactory for both parties, and Numan praised the band as "brilliant, really easy to work with. They didn't have a bad word to say about anyone."
The uncharacteristically bouncy and bright rendition somewhat contrasts with Fear Factory's reputation for intense, grinding metal, while the heavy use of synthesizer and other electronic elements corresponds with the band's industrial style. Drummer Raymond Herrera described the cover as "basically like a blueprint of a futuristic car." He added that, while other songs were considered, the band chose "Cars" because all the band members knew and appreciated it and because the keyboards suited Fear Factory's sound. Herrera later noted that the group initially wanted to record U2's "New Year's Day" but chose "Cars" because they were fortunate enough to have Numan participate. Fear Factory would later cover a different U2 song, "I Will Follow," in 2005.

Reception

"Cars" played a significant part in Obsoletes status as Fear Factory's highest-selling album. By 2001, it had sold over 750,000 copies. According to Herrera, the cover received greater enthusiasm in the UK than in the band's native US, which was validated by its chart status. During the song's promotion, Gary Numan joined the band for a concert performance in Brixton, London to much enthusiasm.
After the radio trade publication R&R listed "Cars" as the most added track on both active rock and mainstream rock in May 1999, the song earned "Breaker" status and continued to surge up the chart. "Cars" debuted and peaked at number 57 in the UK Singles Chart on 9 October.
It peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and No. 38 on Modern Rock Tracks.

Music video

Numan also appears in the sci-fi music video, directed by John S. Bartley and filmed in Vancouver, which debuted in June 1999. Bell enthusiastically described the ambitious video as having a "Stanley Kubrick-type of vibe to it":

Track listing

  1. "Cars" – 3:39
  2. "Descent" – 4:38
  3. "Edgecrusher" – 4:33

    Charts

Other covers, live performances and samples

In 1980, Frank Zappa played "Cars" during some live shows, but sang the lyrics to his song "In France" instead of the original ones. When "In France" was released on his 1984 album Them or Us, it got its own blues background instead. The Barron Knights used the melody and background music to "Cars" in "We Know Who Done It," their 1980 parody and spoof of Who shot J.R.?.
Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo released their own hip hop version of "Cars" on their debut Road to the Riches album in 1989. SF Bay Area band Lifeunderwater covered the song on guitars during their live performances in the late 1980s. "Cars" was covered by the Judybats on the 1991 single "Daylight" and by Shampoo on the "Girl Power" single in 1995. Dave Clarke performed the song on the Random tribute album in 1997. Nine Inch Nails performed "Cars" several times during their Wave Goodbye Tour in 2009, featuring Numan on vocals.
On 21 December 1999, during a performance of "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the group Luscious Jackson segued into a variation on "Cars" entitled "Sleds", using the same music but changing the lyrics to describe winter activities.
The song "New Car" by Cledus T. Judd used the instrumental portion of "Cars" after each chorus, partially performed with car horns. The song was remixed with "Technologic" by Daft Punk and with "Here Comes My DJ" by Grandmaster Flash which is featured as a playable track in DJ Hero. Toronto-based alternative rock quartet Sloan performed a version of the song in June 2011 for The A.V. Club A.V. Undercover series.

Appearances

The song appeared on compilations such as the Freddy Got Fingered soundtrack, GT2: Music at the Speed of Sound, Kerrang! Vol. 2: The Album, and Monsters of Rock and in the video game Test Drive 6 in October 1999. A version known as "Cars " appeared on ' in 2002. From late 1999 to early 2000, the Fear Factory version was used in a commercial for "Blue" by credit card company American Express.
The song appears in the 2002 video game ' on the fictional in-game radio station "Wave 103".
The track was included on The Best of Fear Factory in 2006. "Cars," a version containing only Numan's vocals, appeared on the Hatefiles rarities compilation in April 2003. Stewie sings a parody of this song at the end of the Family Guy episode Whistle While Your Wife Works as a way of mocking Brian about how dumb his girlfriend is. In the South Park episode , the song is played in the background of the closing scene.
Numan's version appears in a 2018 TV commercial for Walmart, and on the 1995 film Dangerous Minds.