The Go-Go's 7 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Charlotte Caffey

Charlotte solely wrote "Kissing Asphalt" and she is the only Go-Go to have solely written a song on the album.

Of The Go-Go's 15 songs on the album "God Bless The Go-Go's" and its two singles, Charlotte solely wrote one and co-wrote ten; therefore, Charlotte contributed the most by composing 30% of the lyrics on the album. In addition to Charlotte's one sole-writing credit, Charlotte teamed with Anna Waronker on the song "I Think I Need Sleep" to be the only Go-Go with lyrical credit on two songs.

The ten outside writers on "God Bless The Go-Go's" contributed the second most by composing 26% of the lyrics on the album: Billie Joe Armstrong, Bill Bartell, Heatherton, Susanna Hoffs, Steve Plunkett, Craig Ross, Jill Sobule, Peter Stuart, Jim Vallance and Anna Waronker.

Answer: Kathy Valentine

While with The Textones, Kathy exclusively wrote "Vacation" and released this song on the B-side of the single "I Can't Fight It" in March 1980.

While with The Go-Go's two years later, Jane and Charlotte helped Kathy rewrite "Vacation" and according to Charlotte's interview in the documentary "The Go-Go's," "I really felt like the original version kinda went down and this [melody], it should have gone up" (Ellwood, 2020).

According to an interview with Songfacts, Jane changed the original line "I've thought a lot of things about you" to "Can't seem to get my mind off of you" as well as "Go-Go-fying" the song by adding a chorus (Wiser, 2007).

The music video for "Vacation" cost $50,000, which was high in 1982. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times with Bill Berger, executive vice president of Arista Records, the average cost for a video in the early 1980s was about $25,000 (Hunt, 1989).

Answer: Charlotte Caffey

Of The Go-Go's 12 songs on the album "Beauty and the Beat" and its three singles, Charlotte solely wrote three and co-wrote six; therefore, Charlotte contributed the most by composing 49% of the lyrics on the album.

With Charlotte solely writing three songs, Jane solely writing one and both co-writing six, Charlotte and Jane wrote over 80% of the album!

Answer: I'm with You

Two months after releasing the album "Talk Show," The Go-Go's re-released "Turn to You" backed with "I'm with You" as a single.

The Go-Go's "Turn to You" ranked on three music charts in two countries for 14 weeks from 16 Jun-21 Sep 1984 and peaked at number 28 on the US Cash Box Top 100: Canada and the United States (2).

The Go-Go's are always thinking of you because they wrote "you" 603 times in the lyrics of 48 of their 61 songs (79%) and most prominently in "Turn To You" at 53 times. The unselfish Go-Go's also refer to "you" more times than "me" (195), "myself " (23) and "I" (406).

Answer: Let's Have a Party

The Go-Go's cover the song "Let's Have a Party"; however, Jessie Mae Robinson wrote the lyrics and Elvis Presley originally released this song for the film "Loving You" in 1957.

In addition to "Let's Have a Party," The Go-Go's covered three more songs on their retrospective album:
1) "Cool Jerk" was written by Donald Storball and the Capitols originally released as a single in 1966.
2) "Johnny Are You Queer?" was written by Bobby and Larson Paine and Josie Cotton originally released as a single in 1981.
3) "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" was written by George Morton and The Shangri-Las originally released as a single in 1964.

Answer: Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's

The retrospective album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" was the first to contain never previously-released songs and was sold as two different versions: one-disc with 18 tracks or two-disc with 36 tracks. The Japanese edition of the one-disc version has two additional songs for a total of 20 tracks.

The one-disc version contains three never previously-released songs, the two-disc contains nine and both contain three new Reunion Tracks: "Beautiful", "Good Girl" and "The Whole World Lost Its Head."

Answer: Love

Lyric: "A million times said...In as many songs...But before you...I could never sing along...I love you...I do."

Which Go-Go loves you the most? The Go-Go's wrote "love" 66 times in the lyrics of 17 of their 61 songs (28%). Jane solely wrote five of the 17 songs (29%) and penned "love" 15 times while Charlotte solely wrote one of the 17 songs (6%) and only used "love" once. Neither Belinda, Gina nor Kathy has ever expressed their feelings for you.

Answer: Music critic

According to Jane's interview with The A.V. Club, "Robert Hilburn was a sort of LA legend. He was a rock-music critic. 'Robert Hilburn' was a scathing song about him. It's kind of a dumb move for a young band trying to get somewhere to actually criticize Robert Hilburn, but I don't even know if he ever heard about it. Or if he did, by the time he heard about it, we were doing so well, that he didn't dare not like us."

Continuing in the interview, "It wasn't that he actually criticized us. I was just saying he was a 'poser,' which, back in the '70s, was the biggest insult you could put on someone" (Adams, 2011).

Seven years later, the "poser" seemed to relish The Go-Go's breakup by writing, "The clock has finally struck midnight in one of pop's most engaging Cinderella stories. The Go-Go's have broken up. Despite the band's vow to continue last October when co-founder Jane Wiedlin left the L.A.-based quintet for a solo career" (Hilburn, 1985).

Answer: Vacation

The Go-Go's first released the title track "Vacation" backed with "Beatnik Beach" as a single to promote the album "Vacation" on 26 Jun 1982.

The Go-Go's "Vacation" ranked on 11 music charts in five countries for 14 weeks from 3 Jul-8 Oct 1982 and peaked at number six on the US Cash Box Top 100: Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden and the United States (7).

Answer: Forget That Day

According to her interview with Songfacts about "Forget That Day," Jane recalls the squally weather of that day during "another dramatic, tumultuous, everything-has-to-be-high-drama kind of relationship. It was all very 'Wuthering Heights'" (Wiser, 2011).

"Forget That Day" may have been the beginning of the end for The Go-Go's. According to Jane's interview in the documentary "The Go-Go's," after asking to sing lead vocals on this "super personal" song, Jane evokes not only being rebuffed but also humiliated with "'What makes you think you're good enough to sing a song?' which is something I'll never forget hearing. It was a huge betrayal, and I did not know how to get past it" (Ellwood, 2020).

According to Belinda and Jane's interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the interviewer observed, "When her [Jane's] bandmates saw that scene [in the documentary] at Sundance, their jaws hit the floor. Everybody [The Go-Go's] was horrified, as to, 'Did I say that?' 'Did I say that?' Belinda says now, 'It was addressed finally.'

'After they approached me, we talked about it, and it was a very emotional conversation,' Jane says. 'I'm not gonna say who said it because that would be just mean. Who cares? It's super water under the bridge'" (Grow, 2020).