The Go-Go's 9 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jane Wiedlin

Jane solely wrote "This Old Feeling." Of The Go-Go's 13 original songs on the album "Vacation" and its four singles, Jane solely three and co-wrote six; therefore, Jane contributed the most by composing 45% of the lyrics on the album.

Love is "This Old Feeling" and Jane was so committed to this "new" feeling, she wrote "I love you" nine times in the lyrics. Jane has solely written eight songs for The Go-Go's and in the lyrics of five, she uses the word "love" 16 times; in the lyrics of six, she expresses her "heart" 13 times and in the lyrics of four, Jane couples "love" with "heart" four times.

Jane had also coupled with a Valentine (Kathy) on the lyrics of five songs: "The Way You Dance," "Worlds Away," "Beneath the Blue Sky," "The Whole World Lost Its Head" and "Daisy Chain."

Answer: Jessie Mae Robinson

The Go-Go's cover the song "Let's Have a Party"; however, Jessie Mae Robinson wrote the lyrics and Elvis Presley originally recorded her song for the movie "Loving You" in 1957 and then as a single titled "Party" later the same year.

The confetti-bursting song "Let's Have a Party" on the album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" is during a concert at Palos Verdes High School in Los Angeles on 4 Dec 1981, and the video "Totally Go-Go's!" (1982) not only captures the complete concert but also contains personal interviews with the sophomoric Go-Go's.

According to Setlist.fm, The Go-Go's have performed "Let's Have a Party" 48 times for their fourth most-performed cover song at shows.

Answer: Jane Wiedlin

Of The Go-Go's 11 songs on the album "Talk Show" and its three singles, Jane earned 38% of the lyrics on the album, Kathy 24%, Gina 14%, Charlotte 12% and outside writers 12%. Belinda must have been too busy appearing on the talk shows.

"Talk Show" was the last album before The Go-Go's disbanded on 10 May 1985; however, five years after their last show during the first year for Rock in Rio, The Go-Go's took a shot for another go-go at the world-famous Whisky a Go Go. On 27 Mar 1990, The Go-Go's reunited for a show at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood and again the following night for a benefit concert at the Universal Amphitheatre in Universal City. Seven months later in November, The Go-Go's regrouped again to kick off their 28-show Reunion Tour to promote their first compilation album "Greatest."

Since reuniting, The Go-Go's have released one studio album, one non-album single, three compilation albums, three chart hits, a Broadway musical, a documentary film and have performed almost 400 shows.

The Go-Go's have also since received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 11 Aug 2011, a plaque on the Rock Walk at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on 17 Aug 2011 (Belinda's birthday), induction into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame on 21 Jun 2014, the Icon Award at the She Rocks Awards on 22 Jan 2021 and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 30 Oct 2021.

Answer: Mercenary

The Go-Go's re-released "Yes or No" backed with "Mercenary" as a single.

Ron and Russell Mael of the band Sparks not only co-wrote "Yes or No" with Jane, but Jane also sang vocals on Sparks' songs "Lucky Me, Lucky You" and "Cool Places" for their album "In Outer Space" in 1983.

Everything Jane touches sparks the charts because "Cool Places" ignited to number 13 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play and number 49 on US Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, and The Go-Go's "Yes or No" sparkled at number 84 on the US Billboard Hot 100 the same year.

Ron and Russell Mael's collaboration with Jane gives "Yes or No" the distinction of having the most outside writers contribute to the lyrics of one Go-Go's song; however, another song on the same album also shares this distinction. Kathy Valentine teamed with friends Carlene Carter and Danny Harvey on the lyrics to "I'm the Only One."

Answer: Cool Jerk

The Go-Go's cover the song "Cool Jerk"; however, Donald Storball wrote the lyrics and the Capitols originally released this song as a single in 1966.

In addition to "Cool Jerk," The Go-Go's cover three other songs on this compilation album: 1) "Johnny Are You Queer?" was written by Bobby and Larson Paine and Josie Cotton originally released this song as a single in 1981. 2) "Let's Have a Party" was written by Jessie Mae Robinson and Elvis Presley originally released this song for the film "Loving You" in 1957. 3) "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" was written by George Morton and The Shangri-Las originally released this song as a single in 1964.

Answer: VH1 Behind the Music: Go-Go's Collection

The compilation album "VH1 Behind the Music" is the only Go-Go's album to not produce any singles. The compilation album "Greatest" released a refashioned cover of "Cool Jerk" backed with "We Got the Beat" as a single, and "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" released "Good Girl" and "The Whole World Lost Its Head" as singles. "Hellogg's Punk Tarts" is a bootleg recording of The Go-Go's at the Whiskey a Go Go on 4 Oct 1978.

Holy form factor, Jane Drano! According to Discogs, The Go-Go's released the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head" on four formats in '94: CD Maxi (4 3/4"), CD Mini (3 1/8"), cassette tape and vinyl (7").

Answer: The Go-Go's

According to Caffey's interview with North Bay Bohemian, "It [Daisy Chain] just kind of tells our little story...it was just such a poignant and such a well-written song" (Sculley, 2002).

Jane and Kathy begin The Go-Go's little story as "Punk rock girls with some noise to make [...] So careless with what we'd found [...] We were out of our minds" and concludes with "We never even said goodbye sweet Jane."

Answer: All Tomorrow's Parties

The Velvet Underground & Nico (Christa Päffgen) released "All Tomorrow's Parties" on their album "The Velvet Underground & Nico" in 1967.

Although The Go-Go's did not cover this song on an album or single, The Go-Go's have sung a line from it during their shows. Have you ever heard Jane sing, "And what costume shall the poor girl wear?" at the end of The Go-Go's song "Automatic"? This line is the intro to "All Tomorrow's Parties" and Jane's outro may be a tribute to Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol, Nico or Jane just likes the song.

In 2010, Jane was one of 13 artists on the tribute album "American Velvet, Vol. 1: A Tribute to the Velvet Underground," and her cover of their song "Foggy Notion" from the Velvet Underground compilation album "VU" (1985) is the first track. Michael Doman's (The Broken Homes) cover of "Sweet Jane" is Track-4!

Pop artist Andy Warhol managed Velvet Underground during 1967 and according to research in the book "The Velvet Underground and Nico [33 1/3]," "All Tomorrow's Parties" was Warhol's favorite song by Velvet Underground (Harvard, 2004). Jane and Charlotte also include Warhol in the lyrics of one of their earliest songs "Party Pose" on their retrospective album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" (1994).

Nico sang lead vocals on "All Tomorrow's Parties," starred in nine of Warhol's films, was billed as "Pop Girl of '66" in Warhol's intermedia show "Exploding Plastic Inevitable" and after Velvet Underground and Warhol severed their relationship in 1967, Nico became a solo artist until her tragic death in 1988.

Go-Go's FunTest! According to the video on YouTube, The Go-Go's perform their song "Automatic" [35:08] during a show at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel and just before their encore [1:03:45], Jane and Charlotte attempt a contest with the audience to win a "signed autographed free CD" for "the name of the song at the end of "Automatic."" The audience, however, was too boisterous and uncontrollable, so the ladies got frustrated, withdrew the contest and chalked it up as an "experiment" ("Go-Go's 7/10/01 at Lupo's, Providence RI," uploaded by Douglas).

Answer: Talk Show

The Go-Go's released "Yes or No" on the album "Talk Show" and this album ranked number 18 on US Billboard Top 200 Albums and number 64 on Canada RPM 100 Albums in 1984. Although a chart hit, "Yes or No" has become an ostracized song.

"Talk Show" was the last album before Jane departed The Go-Go's in Oct 1984, and three songs on this album ranked on the music charts. Of these three songs, Jane has lyrical credit on two: "Turn to You" and "Yes or No."

Since reuniting in 1990, The Go-Go's have performed all their previous chart hits except one: Jane's "Yes or No." According to Setlist.fm, the last time The Go-Go's performed "Yes or No" was during their Prime Time Tour in 1984 to promote the album "Talk Show"; however, The Go-Go's have yet to perform this song since reuniting in 1990. Jane's hit "Turn to You" hasn't fared much better being only performed at 9% of their shows since 1990.

According to Wiedlin's documentary-interview in "The Go-Go's" (2020), "I was really writing a lot because Charlotte was in a lot of trouble with the drugs. There are people that really loved that album, but I can't even listen to it because, to me, I was so miserable during that time, oh, my God" (Ellwood, 2020).

Of the three hits on the album "Talk Show," one hasn't been performed since the album was released on 8-track tape and another only 9% of the time. If Jane "can't even listen to it," The Go-Go's won't perform it and there will be no "Yes or No" about it.

Answer: Our Lips Are Sealed

The song "Our Lips Are Sealed" from the album "Beauty and the Beat" armors us against their "lies," "rumors" and "jealous games."

How could co-writer, Terry Hall, have recast the sage advice to ignore gossipmongers into a bleak struggle? According to Songfacts citing an interview with Wiedlin and Uncut Magazine, "I was so shocked when I heard the Fun Boy Three version because it's so moody. I don't think Terry kept a copy of the lyrics because he got some of the words wrong" (unknown, n.d.). Perhaps Fun Boy Three was a goth band?

In addition to "Our Lips Are Sealed," The Go-Go's use the word "lip" in the lyrics of two other songs. "Party Pose" contains the line "Your gossiping lips" and "Beatnik Beach" has "We'll lip sync a go-go." The Go-Go's don't use the words teeth, tongue, gums, palate or uvula in any lyrics; however, the song "Insincere" contains "mouth" and "Girl of 100 Lists" notes "We're out of toothpaste."