The Cars

With their sleek, mechanical sound inspired by proto-punk, garage rock, and bubblegum pop, Boston-based quintet the Cars racked up a string of platinum albums and Top 40 singles, becoming the most successful American new wave band of the late '70s and early '80s. They had enough rock & roll attitude to cross over to album rock radio, while still being heavily influenced by the art rock of artists like Suicide, the Velvet Underground, and Roxy Music. Their first two albums (1978's The Cars and 1979's Candy-O) were new wave classics; their fifth album, 1984's Heartbeat City, was...