You Might Think
"You Might Think" | ||||
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Single by the Cars | ||||
from the album Heartbeat City | ||||
B-side |
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Released | March 13, 1984 (US) November 1984 (UK) | |||
Recorded | 1983–1984 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:04 | |||
Label | Elektra | |||
Songwriter(s) | Ric Ocasek | |||
Producer(s) | Robert John "Mutt" Lange, the Cars | |||
The Cars US singles chronology | ||||
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The Cars UK singles chronology | ||||
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"You Might Think" is a song by American rock band the Cars from their fifth studio album, Heartbeat City (1984). The track was written by Ric Ocasek and produced by Mutt Lange and the Cars, with Ocasek also providing the lead vocals.
The track was the first single to be released from Heartbeat City. "You Might Think" peaked at #7 in the U.S. and #8 in Canada. It also peaked at #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the U.S., the first song by the band to do so. In the UK, the song reached #88 on the pop charts. It was featured heavily, and served as a plot device, in the American television series BrainDead.
Music video
The music video is one of the first to use computer graphics. The video features band leader Ric Ocasek and model Susan Gallagher in a series of quirky encounters.[2] Ocasek appears in her bathroom mirror, inside a large periscope that pops up in her bathtub, in her mouth, as a fly, as King Kong on top of the Empire State Building and as the Robot Monster, among other incarnations. The rest of the band appears together and separately throughout the video; after they all appear in the movie-theater scene, keyboardist Greg Hawkes plays the dentist in the scene in which Ocasek is jackhammering a tooth in the girl's mouth. In the King Kong scene, the other 3 members, guitarist Elliot Easton, bassist Benjamin Orr and drummer David Robinson, are paired off in the two planes flying around Ocasek.
"You Might Think" won the first MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year and was nominated for five more awards (Best Special Effects, Best Art Direction, Viewer's Choice, Best Concept Video and Most Experimental Video) at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards. The video also won five awards (Best Video, Best Conceptual, Most Innovative, Best Editing and Best Special Effects)[3] at Billboard's 1984 Video Music Awards and four awards (Best Achievement In Music Video, Best Editing In Music Video, Best Engineering In Music Video and Best Camerawork In Music Video) at the Videotape Production Association's 1985 Monitor Awards.[4]
Robin Sloane of Elektra Records creative directed the video after director Jeff Stein (of the Who's The Kids Are Alright) showed her samples from New-York-based visual-effects company Charlex. The firm was nationally known for the innovative weekly advertisements that it was producing the National Enquirer. The commercials featured the first use of the Quantel Paintbox, the first tool for artists to use directly on the video screen. Stein, along with Charlex founders Alex Weil and Charlie Levi, directed and produced the video. Danny Rosenberg and Bill Weber served both as editors and video engineers, Kevin Jones was the lighting director, Danny Ducovny the cinematographer and Bob Ryzner the art director.[5][6] The video cost $80,000 to produce, which was almost triple the average music-video budget of the time.[7]
Track listings
- 7"
- "You Might Think"
- "Heartbeat City"
- 12"
- "You Might Think"
- "Let's Go"
- "I Refuse"
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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References
- ^ Gerard, Chris (August 12, 2014). "Classic Album Revisited: The Cars, "Heartbeat City"". Metro Weekly. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
- ^ "the Cars - You might think". www.mvdbase.com. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
- ^ Billboard vol. 96 no. 47 (November 24, 1984), p. 1
- ^ Billboard vol. 97 no. 27 (July 6, 1985), p. 48
- ^ Heartbeat City video compilation, Warner Home Video, 1984
- ^ Billboard vol. 97 no. 20 (May 18, 1985), p. 32
- ^ "Channel Frederator Blog - Charlex & Jeff Stein: "You Might Think"". Frederator Blogs. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 6730." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
- ^ "The Cars – You Might Think" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
- ^ "The Cars – You Might Think" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
- ^ "The Cars – You Might Think". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
- ^ "The Cars – You Might Think". Singles Top 100. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
- ^ "Cars: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
- ^ "The Cars Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
- ^ "The Cars Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
- ^ "Cash Box Top 100 Singles – Week ending May 5, 1984". Cash Box. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
- ^ "Top 100 Singles of 1984". RPM. Vol. 41, no. 17. January 5, 1985. p. 7. ISSN 0315-5994 – via Library and Archives Canada.
- ^ "Hot 100 Songs – Year-End 1984". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
- ^ "The Cash Box Year-End Charts: 1984 – Top 100 Pop Singles". Cash Box. December 29, 1984. Retrieved November 18, 2017.