Ocasek solo

[denny]

I am a big Cars fan also.  In British Columbia Canada we have a station on our cable TV system called Stingray Retro (older music videos).  I was very surprised to see a video for an Ocasek solo song called True to You from the '86 album This Side of Paradise.  The song was not a top 40 hit even though Ric should have been riding high after the mega success of Heartbeat City and the Greatest Hits albums.  It started me thinking that both Ric and Jeff came from very big bands but for whatever reason(s) could not replicate their groups' success on their own.  I have several of Ric's solo outings and he does tend to get a little more arty and non-commercial outside of the Cars.  Each disc has some solid tunes but does not come close to the uniform high level of the Cars albums.  I feel the same about the Jeff albums (Armchair, Zoom and Alone in the Universe...sorry don't mean to stir up trouble!).  Note that 'True to You' had all the Cars members playing/singing on it with the exception of drummer David Robinson....maybe it was a song meant for Heartbeat City?

[dillwyn]

they made some great singles (i still have those first 4 picture disks on vinyl).
I guess it didn't help him their biggest hit (certainly in the uk) was drive not sung by Ocasek... i can't remember any hit album covers that his picture was on.