News

Hello again! The Cars’ penultimate album and biggest commercial success is coming back in a box set this year.

Rhino will reissue the group’s Heartbeat City as a 4CD/1LP set on October 31, a year-delayed 40th anniversary celebration that’ll include the original album on CD and vinyl alongside a wealth of bonus material (including tracks featured on previous expanded editions of not only this album but 1980’s Panorama). Highlights include the non-album B-side “Breakaway,” remixes of the single “Hello Again,” a number of early versions and demos (including one of standout track “Drive” as well as “Shooting for You,” a Panorama outtake revisited during the Heartbeat sessions) and even an early mix of the whole album. The set is capped off with a live set recorded at The Summit in Houston, TX during the promotional cycle for the album, released in part as a longform video four decades ago and featured here with additional material. Keyboardist Greg Hawkes pens new track-by-track liner notes, and drummer David Robinson (who also designed all the band’s album covers) offers his recollections in a new essay.

While the Boston-bred band (the subject of a new book by author and Buffalo Tom frontman Bill Janovitz) were already proven hitmakers since the late ’70s – notching New Wave hits like “Just What I Needed,” “Let’s Go” and the Top 10 “Shake It Up” – 1984’s Heartbeat City found the group going into overdrive. Shifting lanes from longtime producer Roy Thomas Baker to rising pop/rock juggernaut Robert John “Mutt” Lange, the group’s fifth album was their sleekest to date, offering undeniable hooks on “You Might Think” (a Top 10 hit in America), “Magic,” “Hello Again” and the title track, all of which were sung by guitarist Ric Ocasek. The crown jewel of the album – and, at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 the group’s greatest commercial masterstroke – was “Drive,” sung with palpable emotion by bassist Benjamin Orr over a slow-dance-primed cascade of synthesizers, programmed drums and ethereal background vocals. “You Might Think” and “Drive” cemented The Cars as masters of the increasingly dominant MTV: a clip for the former was the first winner of a Video Music Award for Video of the Year, while the latter was immortalized in both a music video featuring Ocasek’s future wife, model Paulina Porizkova, and a heartrending montage that played during the global telecast of the charity concerts Live Aid in 1985. (A well-regarded video for “Hello Again” was co-directed by Andy Warhol, one of the legendary visual artist’s few forays into traditional music video production.)

The box (which reverts its adaptation of Peter Phillips’ visual art piece on the cover, going back to the dark red border instead of the white one Robinson oversaw on recent reissues) will be available on October 31 and can be pre-ordered below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Heartbeat City (Deluxe Edition) (Elektra/Rhino, 2025) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

* previously unreleased

CD 1/LP: Original album (released as Elektra 60296, 1984)

1. Hello Again
2. Looking for Love
3. Magic
4. Drive
5. Stranger Eyes
6. You Might Think
7. It’s Not the Night
8. Why Can’t I Have You
9. I Refuse
10. Heartbeat City

CD 2: B-Sides, Remixes, Early Versions & Demos

1. Breakaway
2. Hello Again (Remix)
3. Hello Again (Dub Version)
4. Drive (Demo)
5. Stranger Eyes (Early Version) *
6. It’s Not the Night (Early Version) *
7. One More Time (Early Version of “Why Can’t I Have You”)
8. Baby I Refuse (Early Version of “I Refuse”)
9. Jacki (Early Version of “Heartbeat City”)
10. Shooting for You (First Version) *
11. Shooting for You (Re-Recorded Version) *
12. Shooting for You (Re-Recorded Version – Alternate Mix)

Track 1 released on “Why Can’t I Have You” single – Elektra 7-69657, 1984
Tracks 2-3 released on Elektra 12″ 0-66929, 1984
Tracks 4 and 7-9 released on Heartbeat City (Expanded Edition) – Elektra/Rhino R2 565284, 2018
Track 12 released on Panorama (Expanded Edition) – Elektra/Rhino R2 560030, 2017

CD 3: Early Mixes *

1. Hello Again
2. Looking for Love
3. Magic
4. Drive
5. Stranger Eyes
6. You Might Think
7. It’s Not the Night
8. Why Can’t I Have You
9. I Refuse
10. Heartbeat City
11. Breakaway
12. Shooting for You (First Version)
13. Shooting for You (Re-Recorded Version – Alternate Mix)

CD 4: Live at The Summit, Houston, TX – 9/11/1984 *

1. Hello Again
2. It’s Not the Night
3. Touch and Go
4. Candy-O
5. Good Times Roll
6. Jimmy Jimmy
7. Moving in Stereo
8. Just What I Needed
9. A Dream Away
10. Cruiser
11. Drive
12. You Might Think
13. My Best Friend’s Girl
14. Magic
15. Let’s Go
16. Heartbeat City
17. You’re All I’ve Got Tonight

Tracks 1-3, 5-12 and 14-17 released on video as Live 1984-1985 – Vestron Music Video MA 1018, 1985