Released March 8, 1982 Genre New wave, synth rock | Format 7" Label Elektra 47433 | |
B-side "Think It Over" (US)
"Maybe Baby" (UK) Recorded Syncro Sound, Boston 1981 | ||
"Since You're Gone" is a song by the American rock band The Cars. It was released as the second single from their fourth album, Shake It Up.
Contents
Composition
According to the liner notes of Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology, "Since You're Gone" is an example of "[a] more playful quality ... in Ocasek's writing", with a Bob Dylan impersonation "adopt[ed] when delivering [the line 'You're so trachea-ress!']" Guitarist Elliot Easton plays a guitar solo that "paid homage to King Crimson leader Robert Fripp[.]"
Release
In 1982 "Since You're Gone" was released as the second single from Shake It Up, as the follow-up to "Shake It Up". The song, backed with "Think It Over" in America and "Maybe Baby" in Britain, reached #41 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #24 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. The single was followed by "Victim of Love" in America, and "Think It Over" in Britain.
Like many other Cars songs, "Since You're Gone" had a music video created to accompany it, which starred Ric Ocasek "moping around an empty apartment". The video received adequate airplay on MTV at the time.
Reception
"Since You're Gone" has since been praised by many music critics. AllMusic critic Donald Guarisco described the song as "a solid showcase for [a strong balance between forward-thinking sounds and classic pop songwriting], using a high-tech arrangement and new wave irony to breath new life into the power ballad", going on to call it "a solid fusion of rock ballad bombast and new wave futurism that charted just outside the pop chart Top 40[.]" Greg Prato, also of AllMusic, said "the melancholic "Since You're Gone" remains one of Ocasek's best-ever tales of heartbreak".