Todd Harry Rundgren is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Nazz and Utopia. He is known for his sophisticated and often unorthodox music, his occasionally lavish stage shows, and his later experiments with interactive art. He also produced music videos and was an early adopter and promoter of various computer technologies, such as using the Internet as a means of music distribution in the late 1990s.
Charles Lempriere "Prairie" Prince is an American drummer and visual artist. He came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the San Francisco–based rock group The Tubes, was a member of Jefferson Starship from 1992 to 2008 and has worked with a wide range of other performers as a session musician.
The Cars were an American pop rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes (keyboards), and David Robinson (drums). Ocasek and Orr shared lead vocals, and Ocasek was the band's principal songwriter and leader.
The Cars is the debut studio album by American new wave band the Cars, released on June 6, 1978, by Elektra Records. The album was managed by longtime producer Roy Thomas Baker, and spawned several hit singles, including "Just What I Needed", "My Best Friend's Girl", and "Good Times Roll", as well as other radio and film hits such as "Bye Bye Love" and "Moving in Stereo". The Cars peaked at number 18 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, and has been certified six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Richard Theodore Otcasek, known as Ric Ocasek, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was the primary vocalist, rhythm guitarist, songwriter, and frontman for the American new wave band the Cars. In addition to his work with the Cars, Ocasek recorded seven solo albums, and his song "Emotion in Motion" was a top 20 hit in the United States in 1986.
Utopia was an American rock band formed in 1973 by Todd Rundgren. During its first three years, the group was a progressive rock band with a somewhat fluid membership known as Todd Rundgren's Utopia. Most of the members in this early incarnation also played on Rundgren's solo albums of the period up to 1975. By 1976, the group was known simply as Utopia and featured a stable quartet of Rundgren, Kasim Sulton, Roger Powell and John "Willie" Wilcox. This version of the group gradually abandoned progressive rock for more straightforward rock and pop.
Elliot Easton is an American musician who is best known as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the American new wave band the Cars. His melodic guitar solos are an integral part of the band's music. Easton has also recorded music as a solo artist, and has played in other bands. He is a left-handed guitarist. In 2018, Easton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cars.
Nearly Human is a 1989 album by the rock musician Todd Rundgren, released by Warner Bros. Records. It was his first release in four years, although he had been active as a producer in the intervening years. Many of the album's songs deal with loss, self-doubt, jealousy and spiritual recovery. It was also the first collaboration between Rundgren and Michele Gray, a singer and ex-model who helped to organize the sessions. Gray sang backing vocals, both on the record and on subsequent tours, and the pair later married.
The New Cars were a band formed in 2005 by two of the original members of the 1970s/1980s new wave band the Cars. The band was composed of original Cars members Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes, along with vocalist/guitarist Todd Rundgren, bassist/vocalist Kasim Sulton, and drummer Prairie Prince. The band performed the Cars' songs, some new material, and selections from Rundgren's career.
Kasim Sulton is an American bass guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist. Best known for his work with Utopia, Sulton sang lead on 1980's "Set Me Free," Utopia's only top 40 hit in the United States. As a solo artist, Sulton hit the Canadian top 40 in 1982 with "Don't Break My Heart".
It's Alive! is the only album released by The New Cars. The album features fifteen live tracks, twelve of which are songs known as being performed by the original Cars. The remaining two, "I Saw the Light" and "Open My Eyes", were popularized by New Cars member Todd Rundgren. The album ends with three new studio tracks, recorded especially for this release.
Back to the Bars is a live album by rock musician Todd Rundgren, which was released as a double LP in 1978.
Bruce McDaniel is an American musician and record producer currently living in New Orleans.
"All Mixed Up" is a song by the Cars and the final track on their 1978 self-titled debut album. It was written by bandleader Ric Ocasek.
POV is the ninth and final studio album by the rock group Utopia, released in January 1985. It peaked at #161 on the Billboard 200 charts. Except for a live 1992 reunion album, this was the last album released by Utopia, and Rundgren's final studio work under the Utopia banner.
Wasp is the fifth and final studio album by teen idol Shaun Cassidy, released in 1980. In an attempt to salvage a sinking pop career, Cassidy recruited Todd Rundgren to help "reinvent" his music career. Members of Rundgren's group Utopia also played on the record, and the work had a decidedly "new wave" feel.
Redux '92: Live in Japan is an album by the rock band Utopia recorded live on May 10, 1992 at Gotanda Kani Hoken Hall, Tokyo, Japan and released in early 1993. It captures the band's reunion six years after it had disbanded in 1986. The album ostensibly consists of the "best of" as selected by the members Todd Rundgren, Roger Powell, Kasim Sulton, and John "Willie" Wilcox. A companion video of the same performance was released on DVD and VHS tape.
"Candy-O" is a song by the American rock band the Cars, the title track of their 1979 album Candy-O. Written by Ric Ocasek, the song was not based on a real person. The song features a prominent guitar solo by Elliot Easton and lead vocals by bassist Benjamin Orr.
Move Like This is the seventh and final studio album by American rock band the Cars, released on May 10, 2011. It was their first since 1987's Door to Door, and the only one without bassist and vocalist Benjamin Orr, who had died of pancreatic cancer in 2000.
Todd Rundgren's Johnson is Todd Rundgren's tribute album for blues musician Robert Johnson, released April 12, 2011, for Johnson's 100th birthday. Rundgren started out playing guitar professionally in a blues garage band called Woody's Truck Stop, around 1966, where he was heavily inspired by and performed blues songs by Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Blues Project, and music by original Chess blues artists and British blues-rock groups like the Yardbirds.
