10 Bands That Never Topped Their 1st Album

With the amount of timeless melodies and pop-savvy hooks The Cars built into their debut album, you'd think their mom's never taught them to save some for later.

The almost careless way in which the band tossed off one classic song after another on their self-titled 1978 debut had guitarist Elliott Easton later admitting the band themselves often referred to it as their Greatest Hits. It's that good.

In Ric Ocasek, the band had an atypical songwriter who could mine the best bits from old bubblegum and rockabilly records and inject them with a sarcastic and knowing new-wave wink. In Benjamin Orr, they had their pinup co-frontman with an angelic voice and magazine-ready good looks.

Add to that the instrumental proficiency of Easton, keys player Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson, and you had a band that was a good few steps ahead of most artsy new wave acts on the block.

The album was a smash hit, selling over 6 million albums in the US alone with three singles charting strongly. The remaining songs are all regulars on rock radio to this day.

The band followed it up with Candy-O a year later, a rock solid return that charted 15 spots higher at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It didn't have the longevity of the debut, though, and it didn't ship as many millions.

It's hard to follow up a Greatest Hits, even when it's more of the same.