1984 Hit Ballad Ranked Among 'Greatest Car Songs of All Time' Asks a Heartbreaking Six-Word Question

Sometimes a band’s biggest hit doesn’t sound all that much like the rest of their other music. A perfect example? “Drive” by the Cars. Released as the third single from the group’s 1984 album Heartbeat City, the ballad became their highest-charting track, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and going all the way to #1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart…all while sounding “like nothing else the band ever did,” as critic Brian Kachejian of Classic Rock History pointed out.

“’Drive’ is the outlier in the band’s catalog,” Kachejian wrote, going on to add that the “video that came out with the song was stunning.”

Indeed, anyone who grew up watching MTV in the ’80s will remember the video for “Drive” as a standout. Starring model Paulina Porizkova, who was just 19 years old at the time (and later married Cars frontman Ric Ocasek), the video shows a young woman in the throes of an emotional breakdown — making it a perfect illustration of the tune’s tragic theme.

Sung by Cars bassist Benjamin Orr, the lyrics were written by Ocasek:

“Who’s gonna hold you down / When you shake? / Who’s gonna come around / When you break? / You can’t go on, thinkin’ / Nothin’s wrong, but bye / Who’s gonna drive you home, tonight?”

Andrew Unterberger of Billbooard ranked the song among the “Best Car Songs of All Time” (meaning the automobile, not the band).

“’Who’s gonna drive you home tonight?’ All the history, intimacy, trust and distance of a relationship in one six-word question from motorist to passenger,” Unterberger wrote.

‘Drive’ was a major influence on Paul McCartney

Fans weren’t the only ones who fell in love with “Drive.”

As Paul McCartney told The Washington Post in 2017, the song had a huge influence on his sixth solo studio album, Press to Play.

“Sometimes you get caught up in trying to be the current flavor, trying to go along and flavor your cooking with the food of the month, and I think Press to Play was certainly that,” the former Beatle explained.

“I remember the records I listened to,” he continued. “‘Let’s Dance.’ Or ‘Drive’ by the Cars. Records that were of the time and I probably just thought, “Yeah, it’d be quite nice to get into a bit of that.”

All these years later, people are still listening: At the time of this writing, the song has been streamed 569,851,636 times on Spotify alone.

Related: 1980 Soft Rock Ballad Flopped—Then It Became a No. 1 Hit 5 Years Later