The Cars to release deluxe edition of ‘Heartbeat City’ for album’s 40th anniversary

Last year’s 40th anniversary of The Cars’ Heartbeat City is being marked with a new expanded reissue of the album.

Dropping Oct. 31, Heartbeat City (Deluxe Edition) is a four-CD/one-LP set that comes with the original album on both LP and CD, along with two CDs of bonus material made up of unreleased studio recordings, B-sides, early mixes, alternative takes and demos, including a demo for the band’s top-10 hit “Drive.”

There’s also a CD with a live concert recorded at The Summit in Houston on Sept. 11, 1984. The concert was originally released on VHS and Laserdisc, and this marks its first-ever CD release. The package also comes with a color booklet with photos, liner notes by keyboardist Greg Hawkes and an essay by drummer David Robinson.

Heartbeat City (Deluxe Edition) is available for preorder now.

Heartbeat City was produced by Mutt Lange and released in March 1984. It became a huge hit for The Cars, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart and hitting #1 on the Billboard Rock Albums chart. It went on to be certified four-times Platinum by the RIAA.

Much of the album’s popularity was due to singles like “You Might Think” and “Drive,” both of which reached the Billboard Hot 100 top 10. They both benefited from videos that received huge airplay on MTV, especially “You Might Think,” which went on to win the first-ever video of the year award at the MTV Video Music Awards.