Just What I Needed
The Cars
- Key
- E major
- Camelot
- 12B
- BPM
- 129.1
Key confidence medium · relative C# minor (12A) · BPM confidence high · half-time 64.5 · measured from the full recording · 2026-09-12
The recording is tuned near 451 Hz, not A440.
The full sheet: this record in Dig. Same engine, your files: drop a crate in the analyzer.
As of 2026-10-07, "Just What I Needed" by The Cars has charted in 3 markets across 2 platforms, peaking at #37 (US) on the Rotation chart. Measured from the full recording, it reads E major (12B) at 129.1 BPM.
- Markets
- 3
- First seen
- 2026-07-26
- Latest chart date
- 2026-10-07
- Peak
- #37 us
Started in 1 market, now in 3.
Momentum
This song has not appeared on a Rotation chart, so it has no score and no receipts. The rank history below is the ledger; a score is only published once the momentum run puts it on a chart.
Why it's here
The song first broke as a demo tape that Boston stations WCOZ and WBCN put into rotation in 1977, months before its official release, becoming one of the stations' most requested songs. [1] The opening riff was borrowed from the Ohio Express's "Yummy Yummy Yummy," and its own riff was later copied by Fountains of Wayne for "Stacy's Mom." [2] It was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, and hearing it in a grocery store led Weezer's Rivers Cuomo to choose Ocasek as producer for Weezer's debut album. [3]
In culture
Every place this record has lived. A solid chip states a fact and carries the citation that earns it; a dashed one is a connection somebody drew, and carries their name instead.
- Covered Ann Berettasource
- Covered Aodhansource
- Covered Big Daddysource
- Covered Caleigh Peterssource
- Covered Damonesource
- Covered Ellwoodsource
- Covered Ghoti Hooksource
- Covered Poisonsource
- Covered Replicantssource
- Written by Ric Ocaseksource
- Covered Sister Hazelsource
- Covered The Gotohellssource
- Covered The New Carssource
Across markets · earliest pickup first
Every date here is the date the source chart covers, never the date we fetched it. Sources publish on different lags: the Spotify mirror runs about two days behind, TurnTable publishes weekly.
- MarketFirst seenPeak
- New Zealandnz · shazam#100#91#100
- United Statesus · shazam · 1 city#37#37—
- Jordanjo · deezer#94#94—
City pickups
City charts record their parent country as the market, so these do not add to the market count above. One line per country: how many of its rooms picked the song up, and the best of them.
- us 1 city · best #37 orlando
Listen
No official embed available for this song yet.
Editions
No published edition carries this song yet. Every edition it appears in will be listed here and stay listed: an edition is immutable, so a citation to one never rots.
Identity
- ISRC
- USEE17500009
- Slug
- the-cars__just-what-i-needed
- Sources
- deezer, shazam
The cross-platform join key, via Deezer.
Crude v0 identity: slug(artist)__slug(title).
Every source whose chart has ever carried this song.
What moved this week, and why.
The records that climbed, what broke in one place first, what came back. One email on Friday, assembled from the week's charts, with a pressing when there is one.
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