Six O’Clock Triple Shot – 3/24/14 Happy Belated, Ric Ocasek!!

(The Six O'Clock Triple Shot is a daily feature of three songs that share a common theme, heard weeknights on 94.9 WMMQ)

Today, I just can't look past The Cars Co-Founder/Co-Frontman Ric Ocasek's 65th birthday. Granted, it was yesterday, but The Cars are a band that I absolutely was obsessed with growing up. They're one of the bands that I have the earliest memories of listening to, dating all the way back to a nearly-new 8-track of their debut LP. Then, there was Candy-O!! That was on both vinyl (for the art, of course!!) AND 8-track! And, this doesn't even account for the numerous "Variety" cassettes my dad would compile. Funny, I think I was the only one to refer to a "variety tape" years later, rather than the hip 90's term "mix-tape". And, of course, growing up a child of the early days of MTV, their videos were bad ass, too!!

Everybody recognized the odd mug of Ric Ocasek. Of course, I, like many, became very surprised to learn that though Ocasek wrote the absolute majority of The Cars' music, it was Benjamin Orr who sang lead vocals on a lot of my favorite singles and album cuts. And, he was probably the most polished of the two during live sets. I credit their Live Aid performance in 1985 for first pointing this out to me. What a set it was!! Check this YouTube archive out for yourself!!

Tonight, three from The Cars as we celebrate Ric Ocasek's 65th birthday one day late. I'm definitely playing the audio version of "Just What I Needed", recorded during the Live Aid show above, even though it's an Orr vocal song. Then, two with Ric on lead vocals: "Dangerous Type" from Candy-O and "Since Your Gone" from Shake It Up. It's tonight's Six O'Clock Triple Shot on 94.9 WMMQ!!