On The Brink of Tears

Ian Lloyd : Slip Away

[Purchase]

In October of 1979, Ian Lloyd ( who sang the 1973 #1 hit "Brother Louie" with Stories) returned to the U.S. charts at #88 with "Slip Away", a Ric Ocasek song The Cars had recorded between their first and second albums. Lloyd even gets some help from Ocasek on backing vocals and from The Cars' Benjamin Orr on bass and vocals. Despite everything that's going for the song, it only peaked at U.S.#50 a month later. 

The Cars original demo appears on the 1995 Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology.

#27 Ian Lloyd "Slip Away" 1979

 The smartest thing The Cars did was wait a few years after Fountains of Wayne's had a hit with "Stacey's Mom", skip past the sound of their debut and go straight to Candy-O style synth pop on their new album.
  To celebrate, here's a Ric Ocasek tune from that era that became a Top 40 hit for former Stories lead singer Ian Lloyd. You can hear The Cars provided backing vocals.
   It's called "Slip Away".

Here's The Cars demo version:

After the Seattle born singer's power pop career with Stories (which included the hit "Brother Louie")ended, Lloyd provided tons of back up vocals to hit songs, including Foreigner's "Feels Like the First Time" and "Cold As Ice" as well as Billy Joel's "I Go to Extremes". In 2009 he won the Global Marijuana Music Award for best Rock song.