WCSX Classic Cuts : Let’s Go
WCSX Classic Cuts
The Cars: “Let’s Go”
The Hook: Inspired by a cheer-leading chant, but unaware that another band at the time had also had the same inspiration.
Album: Candy-O
Year: 1979
Writer: Ric Ocasek
Stats: The first Top 20 single by The Cars, it peaked at number-14 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Background: Guitarist Elliot Easton says he thinks of a couple of different things when he hears The Cars’ first Top 20 single, “Let’s Go.”
The Cars lead guitarist Elliot Easton on “Let’s Go.” OC:…Let’s Go. :26
“The first thing that comes to my mind is the handclap cheer, the ‘bah-bah bah-bah-bah bah-bah-bah-bah, let’s go,’ which to me, and I remember it at the time, the inspiration was it’s like a cheerleading thing, you know, ‘bah-bah bah-bah-bah bah-bah-bah-bah, let’s go,’ We didn’t realize at the time that a band called The Routers that had a song called ‘Let’s Go’ that incorporated that same handclap. I won’t say too much about that subject, but [laughs] ‘Let’s Go.’”
