Retro Video of the Week: "Drive" by The Cars

Thirty-five years ago today, The Cars released their fifth studio album, Heartbeat City, which was a massive success, hitting #3 on the Billboard album charts (tying Candy-O as their best-charting album) and eventually going quadruple platinum in the U.S.  Produced by the famed Mutt Lange -- who has produced AC/DC's Highway to Hell, Back in Black, and For Those About to Rock We Salute You, Def Leppard's High 'n' Dry, Pyromania, and Hysteria, Foreigner's 4, and, of course, multiple Shania Twain albums, to name a few -- Heartbeat City was the band's first album in 2 1/2 years, after pumping out their first four albums between June 1978 and November 1981.

And what a return it was.  The album produced five Top 40 hits in the U.S. -- doubling the band's number of Top 40 songs from their first four albums combined.  "You Might Think" (#7), "Magic" (#12), "Drive" (#3), "Hello Again" (#20), and "Why Can't I Have You" (#33) ensured that The Cars were everpresent on the airwaves in 1984 and 1985.  

Since I have already featured "You Might Think" in a previous Retro Video of the Week, I'm going to go with "Drive" -- an iconic '80s pop song that was the band's highest-charting song in the U.S. and the UK.  The song is sung by the now-late bassist Benjamin Orr, who split lead vocal duties throughout his time with The Cars with guitarist/lead songwriter Ric Ocasek.

The video features supermodel Paulina Porizkova, who met Ocasek during the filming of the video, and the two eventually married in 1989 and had a few kids (though they split up a year or two ago).  It's also directed by actor Timothy Hutton.  Shout out to Beautiful Girls, one of my favorite movies from the '90s, which has nothing to do with "Drive," but which did star Hutton.