You Might Think

"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.

"You Might Think"
Single by the Cars
from the album Heartbeat City
B-side	"Heartbeat City" "Let's Go" "I Refuse"
Released	February 1984
Recorded	1983–1984
Studio	Battery (London)
Genre	New wave rock^[1]
Length	3:04
Label	Elektra
Songwriter(s)	Ric Ocasek
Producer(s)	Robert John "Mutt" Lange the Cars
The Cars singles chronology
"Think It Over" (1982) "You Might Think" (1984) "Magic" (1984)
Music video
"You Might Think" on YouTube

The song was released in February 1984, as the first single from Heartbeat City. "You Might Think" peaked at number seven in the United States and number eight in Canada. It also reached number one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the US, the band's first song to do so. In the United Kingdom, the song reached number 88. It was featured heavily, and served as a plot device, in the 2016 American television series BrainDead.

Music video

 

The song's music video features early computer graphics.

The music video is one of the first to use computer graphics. The video features 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 three members, guitarist Elliot Easton, bassist Benjamin Orr and drummer David Robinson, are paired off in the two planes flying around Ocasek.

A an alternate video omits the ending where Ric Ocasek "removes" his face, a gush of water with various artifacts from the video streams out from where his face was, and the fly version of Ocasek flys into the screen and spatters green fly guts into the words "The End". Instead, in the alternate version, his face remains in place and he continues to lip-synch to the lyrics.

"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) 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.^[3][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-inch single

A. "You Might Think" – 3:04

B. "Heartbeat City" – 4:30

• 12-inch single

A. "You Might Think" – 3:04

B1. "Let's Go" – 3:33

B2. "I Refuse" – 3:16

Credits and personnel

• Ric Ocasek – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Ben Orr – backing vocals, bass guitar
• Elliot Easton – lead guitar, backing vocals
• Greg Hawkes – keyboards, backing vocals, Fairlight CMI
• David Robinson – drums
• Mutt Lange - backing vocals

Charts

Weekly charts 1984 weekly chart performance for "You Might Think" Chart (1984) Peak position Australia (Kent Music Report)^[8] 24 Canada Top Singles (RPM)^[9] 8 Netherlands (Single Top 100)^[10] 49 Netherlands (Tipparade)^[11] 11 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)^[12] 27 Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)^[13] 20 UK Singles (OCC)^[14] 88 US Billboard Hot 100^[15] 7 US Dance Club Songs (Billboard)^[16] 14 US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)^[17] 1 US Cash Box Top 100 Singles^[18] 7 2019 weekly chart performance for "You Might Think" Chart (2019) Peak position US Rock Digital Song Sales (Billboard)^[19] 16

Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for "You Might Think" Chart (1984) Position Canada Top Singles (RPM)^[20] 61 US Billboard Hot 100^[21] 65 US Cash Box Top 100 Singles^[22] 64

Weezer version

"You Might Think"
Lyric sheet
Song by Weezer
from the album Cars 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Released	June 14, 2011
Genre	Pop rock
Length	3:07
Label	Walt Disney
Songwriter(s)	Ric Ocasek
Producer(s)	Weezer Shawn Everett
Music video
"You Might Think" on YouTube

In 2011, American rock band Weezer covered the song for the soundtrack of the computer-animated spy comedy film Cars 2. Weezer had a relationship with co-vocalist Ocasek, As Ocasek produced three of the band's albums, including 1994's Weezer (Blue Album), 2001's Weezer (Green Album), and 2014's Everything Will Be Alright in the End. On June 14, Weezer announced the cover on Kerrang!, Weezer guitarist Brian Bell announced "The song is going to play in the scene where Lightning McQueen and Mater go to Japan, which is great for us because it sort of mirrors our experiences in Japan -- there was a little bit of culture shock!".^[23] The cover was released as the opening track on the same day and a music video was released to the band's Vevo channel on June 21, three days before the film's release, featuring the band recording the song, scenes from the film, people working on the film, and the band in Japan, and was directed by Tim Wilkerson.^[24][25] This version was co-produced by the band and Shawn Everett. Weezer bassist Scott Shriner performed the song with the Cars on their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2018,^[26][27] which would be Ocasek's final performance until his death the following year.^[28] Weezer's version charted at number 8 on the Mexico Ingles Airplay.^[29]

References

1. Gerard, Chris (August 12, 2014). "Classic Album Revisited: The Cars, "Heartbeat City"". Metro Weekly. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
2. . mvdbase.com. Archived from the original on December 22, 2018. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
3. "Cars' Five Awards Tops at Billboard Video Music Meet". Billboard. Vol. 96, no. 47. November 24, 1984. p. 1. ISSN 0006-2510 – via Google Books.
4. "Monitors: Charlex Big Win". Billboard. Vol. 97, no. 27. July 6, 1985. p. 48. ISSN 0006-2510 – via Google Books.
5. Heartbeat City video compilation, Warner Home Video, 1984
6. "Finalists Announced for Monitor Awards". Billboard. Vol. 97, no. 20. May 18, 1985. p. 32. ISSN 0006-2510 – via Google Books.
7. . Frederator Blogs. January 2, 2007. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
8. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
9. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 6730." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
10. "The Cars – You Might Think" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
11. "The Cars – You Might Think" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
12. "The Cars – You Might Think". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
13. "The Cars – You Might Think". Singles Top 100. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
14. "Cars: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
15. "The Cars Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
16. "The Cars Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
17. "The Cars Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
18. "Cash Box Top 100 Singles – Week ending May 5, 1984". Cash Box. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
19. "The Cars Chart History (Rock Digital Song Sales)". Billboard. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
20. "Top 100 Singles of 1984". RPM. Vol. 41, no. 17. January 5, 1985. p. 7. ISSN 0033-7064 – via Library and Archives Canada.
21. "Hot 100 Songs – Year-End 1984". Billboard. from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
22. "The Cash Box Year-End Charts: 1984 – Top 100 Pop Singles". Cash Box. December 29, 1984. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
23. . 2011-08-19. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
24. Weezer - You Might Think (From Disney/Pixar’s CARS 2), retrieved 2022-01-29
25. . web.archive.org. 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
26. Smith, Troy L.; Clevel; .com (2018-03-20). "The Cars confirm performance at 2018 Rock Hall Ceremony". cleveland. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
27. The Cars perform "You Might Think" at the 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, retrieved 2022-01-29
28. Buffa • •, Ken. "Ric Ocasek, Lead Singer of The Cars, Dead in New York at 75". NBC New York. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
29. "Weezer". Billboard. Retrieved 2022-01-29.