Bye Bye Love by The Cars

Album: The Cars (1978)

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Songfacts®:

"Bye Bye Love," written by Ric Ocasek, is the seventh track from the group's debut album, The Cars. Benjamin Orr does the lead vocals here - he and Ocasek shared lead vocal duties in the group.
This is is not at all to be confused with the song of the same title by The Everly Brothers (and covered by Ray Charles, Simon & Garfunkel, and others). The Everly Brothers song implies a comma: "Bye Bye, Love" where The Cars is: "Bye, Bye Love."

The Everly's hit is very straightforward: the guy has lost his girl and he's heartbroken. Ric Ocasek didn't write like that: his songs were full of contradictions and ambiguity. This one is more chaotic than most, as we hear the singer losing his mind and blaming it on the girl:

Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Well, foggin' all my energies
This song has been used in the HBO TV series Big Love in the 2010 episode "The Sins of the Father," where it was chosen for having an '80s sound. Since the song was written and released in 1978, that tells you how far The Cars were looking ahead. The song also appears in the movies Super 8 (2011) and 7 Chinese Brothers (2015).
In Frank Moriarty's Seventies Rock - The Decade of Creative Chaos, it is noted that "The clever melding of disparate elements that characterized 1978's The Cars led to an astonishing success for the band, chiefly because the stodgy album-oriented radio stations - which had in large part attempted to ignore punk and New Wave - finally were confronted with new music that they couldn't help but play."

When the album was released in June 1978, the #1 song in America was "You're The One That I Want" from Grease, followed by Shadow Dancing by Andy Gibb. America had Saturday Night Fever and there seemed to be no cure, so getting something not-disco on the charts at all was a spectacular achievement.

Comments: 8

Djmikekc from Kansas City@Pavlov's Dog if you're still with us - I always knew the lyric was "orangey sky". Fast forward 46 years and I'm watching a YouTube vid of Ben singing it live in France 1978. Closeup of him singing "orange in the sky". I hope you see this and know you're not the only one.
Pavlov’s Dog from Tampa Bay FlI swear Benjamin Orr sings the “orangey” line as “It’s an orange in the sky.” Whatever that may mean. :)
Mike G from MichiganI always thought he sang "With your eyes upon us Banana Blue" when it was really "With your eyes of porcelain and of blue".
Tim from ClarkdaleI know this is going to sound cliche but it this song reminds me of doing drugs, acid in particular. Especially the first two stanzas. I mean, it's true that I did drugs during this time period, but I still think there may be drug influence on the lyrics. I am wondering, Does anyone agree with me? Great song btw, One of my favorites.
Camille from Toronto, OhOh, and I'm surprised to see this song came out in 1978. I surely thought it didn't make an appearance until the MTV generation began in 1981.
Camille from Toronto, OhLove the song and vocals. I always thought the words were "It's orange-ade sky" and see now that the word was "orangy", pretty close but still not a word I've ever heard in any other song. I love the delivery of the song. The verses are sung intensely, while the chorus switches to a more abstract approach, just like a guy whose attention is distracted by looking up at the orangy sky. I think he's in love with a woman who keeps stringing him along. She has no intention of ever really being with him, and he's finally realizing that it's pointless to love her when she always with someone else. So he's giving her the big shove-off. Bye, bye love.
Eb from Fl Keys, FlI took a long break from secular music when I became a Christian. When I got back to it a bit, the Cars are one of the bands that I really appreciated musically, that I kind of tended to have overlooked and took for granted before. I really enjoy the poetry of the lyrics in "Bye Bye Love." Great, great song.
Steve from Chino Hills, CaThe Cars used a lot of abstract lyrics in their earlier albums. This song sounds like it's a break up song with hints of two timing. Great use of visualization of colors.
A lot of the 70's music seemed to be geared more toward the sound than the lyrics. Bye, Bye Love doesn't make any great statements, but it did rock hard and moved the album toward the final number "All Mixed Up." I believe the Cars kept Bye, Bye Love very tight. Greg Hawkes kept the keyboard interesting without being annoying. Elliot Easton had a strong riff. It has a hard, destinctive sound that didn't escape the scope of the song and the song was neither too sort or too long.

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