Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Today on the pod, we've got two

music biographies looking at two very different acts. In a bit, we'll hear about a new biography

of the rapper Tupac Shakur, but not before hearing about the rock band, The Cars. And while these

artists don't seem to have much in common at first glance,

both books talk about how people's perception of them was just as important to their success as

their actual music. Bill Genovitz is the writer of The Cars Let the Stories Be Told. And he talks

to hear now as Robin Young about how important MTV was to their

success, but also how the band eventually fell apart as members jockeyed for center stage. That's ahead.

The year was 1978. Yeah, way back then. So sad. We only had radio and records. Poor us. Actually, it was so great.

Let the good times grow. Let them make you a clown.

So, radio. We first even heard the cars in the 1970s because a legendary Boston DJ played their demo reel.

Years later, guitarist Elliot Easton would thank her when the cars were inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame.

In the very early days of the band, we had an angel in the form of a lady named Max Ann Sartori.

She began to play our demo tape in heavy rotation alongside all the biggest records of the day,

and we will forever be indebted to her for incredible support in getting this thing going.

Then, records. After the band was signed, because of that tape, Max-Anne played,

we finally got to drop the needle on the car's debut album.

As writer Bill Janowitz says,

The Ripple from that First Splash informed rock and roll for decades.

Not just the sound, the look.

This song won MTV's first Video of the Year award in 1984.

The cars, led by Cleveland's own Rick O'Kasick and Ben Orr, who'd moved to Boston,

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