The Untold Truth Of The Cars

The Cars, arguably the definitive band of the 1980s, came together as the result of a very 1960s phenomenon: a local variety show. Ric Ocasek relocated with his family from Maryland to Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960s, and one night in 1965 he caught Benjamin Orr's band the Grasshoppers performing on the black-and-white musical showcase The Big 5 Show. The two struck up a friendship and three years later, when both had moved to Columbus, Ohio, they formed their first (of several) bands together, ID Nirvana. After a couple of other moves from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Boston, they started another group, a folk ensemble called Milkwood.

Ocasek and Orr seemed to be on their way — Milkwood signed with Paramount Records and released an album in 1972, but it sold poorly and the band fell apart. Undeterred, the duo put together another group, Richard and the Rabbits, recruiting musician Greg Hawkes to play the keyboards, having liked the saxophone work he contributed to Milkwood's one and only record. Hawkes soon left to play in comedian Martin Mull's stage act and the country-rock band Orphan, leaving Ocasek and Orr as a coffeehouse duo called, well, Ocasek and Orr. Otherwise, the two paid the bills with day jobs in clothing stores while recording demos in a Boston studio which they paid for in trade, doing carpentry for the owner.

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