It took me a bit to find a movie to feature today. This is mainly because it wasn’t so much about the movie, or the song. I wanted to find a song and movie based on the artist. On this day in 1944, Ric Ocasek of The Cars was born. There are plenty of Cars songs in the movies. Honestly, I could have picked Moving In Stereo because of the scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High because that’s the one everyone talks about. Instead, I picked Just What I Needed, which is featured in 2005’s Sky High.
This movie really has quite the cast. Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston, Lynda Carter, Bruce Campbell, Dave Foley, and even Cloris Leachman! I’ve never seen the movie, but the cast makes it something I may have to visit.
I also admit that I am stretching it a bit, because the Cars version is not it the film. The version in the film is by Caleigh Peters (whoever that is.) It doesn’t matter, though, because I want to focus on Ric today.
Songfacts.com says, “Ric Ocasek was The Cars’ frontman, but he had bass player Ben Orr sing lead on this one. Unlike some singers, Ocasek had no problem handing off a hit to a different bandmember to sing.”
Ric was the writer of Just What I Needed. Songfacts says “he wrote this song in a basement at a commune in Newton, Massachusetts, where he lived at the time. At least that’s the story he told – he also said that all written words are fiction.
“Just What I Needed” is a classic example of his skewed sense of humor and sly lyrical touch. It seems very sweet when he’s telling the girl she’s just what he needed and letting her know he’s happy to have her wasting his time. But then he gets to the chorus:
I guess, you’re just what I needed
I needed someone to feed
I guess, you’re just what I needed
I needed someone to bleed“
The song established The Cars as one of New Wave’s leading hitmakers and helped get them a deal with Elektra Records. According to songfacts, They recorded a 2-track demo of the song that their manager brought to two popular Boston radio stations: WBCN and WCOZ. This ploy rarely works, but the group had built a following in the area and the song was very radio-friendly. Both stations played it and listeners loved it; on WBCN, it became the most-requested song by a local band in the history of the station. With a song on the radio in a major market, The Cars were a surefire success and had their pick of record labels. They went with Elektra, who had them re-record the song and released it as their first single.
Happy Birthday, Ric!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 