Some albums sound so different from anything that came before them that the first time you hear them sticks with you. My first listen to The Cars debut was, appropriately, in a car - the rental of a guy from Elektra Records.  It was a few weeks before its release and he mentioned that there was some debate within the label about whether the debut by this Boston band would get traction. 

Did it ever!  Released on this day in 1978, it spent nearly the next 6 months on the Billboard album chart, spawned several of the biggest Rock radio tracks of the year and earned the group Best New Artist of the Year from Rolling Stone - back when the magazine still had musical cred.