How Benjamin Orr Drove The Cars To Superstardom
FEBRUARY 9TH 2023 | by EMMA SCHOORS
L to R: Ric Ocasek, Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes, Benjamin Orr, David Robinson. Photo by Ebet Roberts/Getty Images
“It’s good to see you again,” Benjamin Orr smiles, center stage. He, along with bandmates David Robinson, Greg Hawkes, Elliot Easton and Ric Ocasek are in front of a crowd of 100,000, launching with frenzied confidence into “Just What I Needed.” Orr is dressed slickly in all black, belt buckle pointed to the side (presumably to avoid scratching the back of his matching black bass,) and he’s managing to win over Live Aid’s audience like it’s nothing, because that’s what Benjamin Orr does. There’s nothing forgettable about him, yet history has been less than kind to his standing as co-leader of Bostonian outfit The Cars.
It was a years-long conversation between my mother and I, every single time “Drive” came on the radio: “Wasn’t there another singer in this band?” she’d ponder. I’d usually shrug it off with a half-hearted “Probably.” When I imagined The Cars, my inner monologue mirrored that of Paulina Porizkova. Describing her late husband Ric, she wrote in 2022: “He looked like an otherworldly creature, an alien, a foreboding angel, all angles and long limbs, like he had secret black wings folded under his raincoat.” That striking, robotic image flooded my senses any time “Moving In Stereo” soundtracked my night drives, and that sentiment still seems to ring true for casual Cars listeners. Take a look at Spotify’s official “This Is The Cars” playlist. Ocasek is the only member gracing the cover, which is why it’s all the more shocking to discover the playlist’s first three songs, three of their biggest hits, are all sung by Orr.
“If [the song] needed to have a good voice, it should be Ben,” Ocasek said in the last interview the full lineup ever gave. This doesn’t discount Ocasek’s contributions as a lead singer; if the track needed a stoic, mechanical pull, he was the obvious man for the job. “Since You’re Gone” clicks and clacks the way it does because of his dipping into the uncanny valley of the human voice. “We did have a certain view of the world: sort of cold but hysterical,” Ocasek admitted in a 1980 Rolling Stone interview, in response to claims that he was a cold frontman. “I think it was probably a protective shield more than anything else. We had abruptly moved from a point in our career of being told ‘You’re worthless,’ to being told ‘You’re everything.’ So it wasn’t coldness so much as cold anger: we were angry at the people who had failed to understand us before, and angry over what they suddenly expected from us.”
A rager like “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight” displays this delicious tension better than perhaps any other Cars song. In their 1979 “Rock Goes To College” set, Ocasek spits out the lines in almost too-perfect time, lips impossibly close to the mic, eyes shaded darkly by sunglasses. But it’s Orr who’s grooving beside him, his undeniable accomplice, delivering smug pre-chorus “Ahh’s” like he owns the stage, because in many ways he does. Firetruck red pants and bleach-blonde allure aside, Orr was the charismatic glue of the band. He was a glimmer of light, purveying an onstage character so magnetic you physically could not look away — all this said, a character it was. “It’s just a show. An act,” he says. “You leave the stage and you’re somebody else, but nobody else sees that except these guys and the crew.” Flashy isn’t a word commonly used to describe The Cars in general, but Orr was particularly humble in his approach to lead vocals, which served as a necessary maturity in a band full of new wave energy.
Orr was born Benjamin Orzechowski in Lakewood, Ohio, playing in early band The Grasshoppers after dropping out of high school as a young local musician. “Benny Eleven-Letters,” as he was called, played in various bands with Ocasek such as Milkwood and Cap’n Swing, before eventually solidifying The Cars lineup in 1976, including keyboardist Greg Hawkes and Modern Lovers drummer David Robinson. Where Milkwood was soft-rock in spades, The Cars was something worlds more advanced. Ocasek and Orr had played together long enough to have the formula down; this time, the band was going all the way.
Orr’s vocal capabilities are spotlighted gorgeously on “All Mixed Up.” There’s a version available on YouTube which isolates his vocals and the guitar tracks, and it’s arguably harder-hitting than the studio version. “She says to leave it to me,” he sings, “Everything will be alright.” “Just What I Needed,” one of the band’s biggest hits, was named in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time list, thanks in large part to Orr’s spectacular vocal performance. A performance of this song on the Midnight Special in 1979 solidified the band as a both stylistically and musically supreme pop-rock band. “Drive,” the band’s highest-charting single, was led by Orr’s haunting tenor, not to mention their smash hit “Let’s Go.” Orr also sings hits like “It’s All I Can Do,” “Stranger Eyes” and “Moving In Stereo,” as well as a flurry of lesser-known tracks like “Candy-O” and “This Could Be Love.” His voice is noticeably whinier, with more rasp and range than Ocasek, balanced by the depth and soul of his bass playing. Orr played a variety of different basses over the years, but most notably used a silver Music Man Stingray, a Vox Teardrop, and a Gibson Flying V.
Labor Day Weekend 1982 — a big day for The Cars, and for music at large. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak put together a grand festival called US. The Cars’ set is stationed between Santana and The Kinks’, (no pressure) and they’re given 15 songs. Not a tiring set, but certainly a healthy allotment. Enough to showcase both Ocassk and Orr’s methods of showmanship. The band opens with crowd-pleaser “Good Times Roll,” but it’s the following song, “Bye Bye Love,” that kickstarts the performance. Orr is all punk edge and monochrome appeal, sporting a long sleeve black top rolled up to his elbows. It’s not at all a departure from the group’s signature look, but they’re on fire sonically. Orr is delivering every line with charisma, speed, and comfort. You won’t find him answering questions or basking in the heat of his popularity after the show – in fact, he gave very few interviews, period. There are only a few full-length conversations available today in which Orr devotes any real time to speaking about himself. He always danced around questions, offering vague compliments or positive sentiments, but never revealing much substance about his personal or professional life. Maybe The Cars’ legacy is a purposeful one, considering how little emphasis Orr put on being the “heartthrob” of the band. He always poked fun at the idea, even going so far as to adopt a joking alter ego named Sven Hollander, who he allegedly used as a cover name when registering at hotels. In that last Cars interview, when asked if he saw himself as the sexy one, Orr immediately replies, “Hell no. Not the sexy one,” he says. “I’ve always kept my one foot on the ground.”
Orr continued performing long after The Cars’ split, earning a hit with his solo track “Stay The Night,” releasing a solo record titled “The Lace,” and eventually joining supergroup Big People with members of Damn Yankees, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38 Special and more in 1999. Joe Milliken’s book, “Let’s Go! Benjamin Orr And The Cars,” is widely regarded as the definitive source for all things Orr, and includes a wonderful assortment of interviews from the people who knew him best. Yet apart from a knowing inner-circle of dedicated Cars fans, Orr has been largely excluded from the bigger discussion surrounding rock music and artists who contributed to its evolution. Up until the very last weeks of his life, Orr offered his voice as a source of solace and comfort to fans all over the world, and he absolutely deserves to be remembered as the brilliant musician, performer, and “electric angel rock and roller” that he was.
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