Born on 23 March: Ric Ocasek (The Cars), please get in…

As his surname suggests, it was in a Polish (and very Catholic) family that little Ric was born in 1944 in Baltimore (Maryland).

Very impressed by the pioneers of rock 'n' roll, such as Buddy Holly (whose influence can be heard in The Cars' "My Best Friend's Girl" in 1978), he was lucky enough to have a grandma who gave him his first guitar at the age of 10. It wasn't electric yet, but everything has a beginning.

In the mid-60s, after moving to Ohio and dropping out of school, he met Benjamin Orzechowski and experienced his first musical thrills with him. A decade later, they formed The Cars together. As lead singer and principal songwriter, Ric Otcasek dropped just one "t" from his surname, while his favourite bassist transformed into a more easily pronounceable Benjamin Orr. A little later, they were joined by guitarist Elliot Easton, whose solos shaped The Cars' brief but extraordinary journey.

In just under a decade, the band recorded five studio albums. The first, eponymous album in 1978, with tracks such as "Good Times Roll", "Just What I Needed", "My Best Friend's Girl" or "Moving In Stereo", still shines brightly in the pantheon of American rock. The subsequent albums "Candy-O" (1979), "Panorama" (1980) and "Shake It Up" (1981) don't disappoint, but struggled to regain the same brilliant spark.

With a new, more pop-oriented direction (some would say saccharine), it was nevertheless the two albums "Heartbeat City" (1984) and "Door To Door" (1987) that allowed them to perform in stadiums across the United States. Songs such as "Drive" or "Magic", calibrated for Uncle Sam's FM stations, have always caused a rash among early fans.

Upon the group's split, Ric Ocasek continued a solo career already begun with the excellent "This Side Of Paradise" (1986). However, his successors never notably managed to rekindle the success of The Cars. Alongside his own career, Ocasek also served as a producer for artists far more turbulent than himself. Thus, his name appears on the sleeves of Suicide, Bad Brains, Weezer, Nada Surf, and also Bad Religion.

Ric Ocasek left us on 15 September 2019 at his home in New York. It was his last partner, Czech model Paulina Porizkova, who made the grim discovery.

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Portrait of Ric Ocasek at the Astoria Hotel in Brussels (Belgium) for the promotion of his album "This Side Of Paradise" in 1986