"Nights are gettin' strange"

The Cars, "Since You're Gone" live

They were undoubtedly more a keyboard than a guitar band, but that made Elliot Easton's lead work the ultimate secret weapon.

R.I.P. Ric Ocasek, from a kid who used to take guitar and music very seriously and in high school cut my teeth on covering The Cars' Greatest Hits with a bass player and his older brother on keyboard.  (We eventually hooked up with a drummer but at first we didn't let that little detail stop us.)

I'll also go out on a limb and suggest that image-wise, both for themselves and their album covers, they were way ahead of the game.

Also easy to forget just how many artists Ocasek worked with outside of his main band.