The Go-Go's Lingo 12 Trivia Quiz

Answer: All I Ever Wanted

Kathy Valentine released her autobiography "All I Ever Wanted: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir" on 31 Mar 2020.

Kathy borrowed the phrase "All I Ever Wanted" from the chorus of The Go-Go's chart hit "Vacation" for the title of her book: "Vacation, all I ever wanted...Vacation, had to get away."

Kathy's memoir covers the first 31 years of her life and concludes in 1990 when The Go-Go's reunite.

While The Go-Go's were facing enormous resistance for radio airplay in 1981, Kathy recalls, "With much annoyance and reluctance, the band agreed to make a music video. I couldn't believe I had to spend a rare and precious day off on this dumb waste of time. The video had no concept other than Belinda behind the wheel of an old convertible Buick from Rent-A-Wreck, driving her bandmates aimlessly around and stopping at random places. I found it incredibly embarrassing and argued vehemently against pulling up in front of the 'Trashy Lingerie' shop on La Cienega [Boulevard in West Hollywood]. What the hell did this place have to do with us?

"Parked in front of the store, the band is presumably shopping for lingerie while Jane sings her 'hush, my darling' part sitting in the convertible. Belinda couldn't be bothered to exit the car and can be seen ducking down in the front seat...my favorite part" (Valentine, 2020).

As Jane begins to sing the bridge of "Our Lips Are Sealed" at 1:40 of the video, you can see the top of Belinda's head as she crouches in the driver's seat causing Jane to chuckle a few seconds later.

On 3 Aug 2021, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Our Lips Are Sealed" at number 61 on the 100 Greatest Music Videos of All Time for "It was a vision of a feminist New Wave utopia that made every other band look hopelessly boring" (Sheffield, 2021).

Answer: Capture the Light

Jane Wiedlin wrote the song "Capture the Light" on the album "Talk Show" in 1984.

Jane uses "light" as a metaphor to pursue love and happiness, even if experiencing challenges and pressure.

According to a review of the album "Talk Show" on Don Ignacio's Music Reviews, "Well here's something. I knew they had to rebound sometime! And what better than this song ["Capture the Light"], which has quite a lot of spirit. The melody is nice, but the star of the show is undoubtedly the guitars. The crunches [intended distortion] are very well done, and there's even some power chords! The electric guitar solo might have been a tad more spirited, but I guess you can't ask for everything. It's probably the best solo of the album though" (Lawrence, n.d.).

Answer: Girl of 100 Lists

Jane Wiedlin wrote the song "Girl of 100 Lists" on the album "Vacation" in 1982.

The songs "Girl of 100 Lists," "Club Zero" and "I'm the Only One" are the only Go-Go's songs with a number in the title.

Speaking of numbers, The Go-Go's wrote 21 numbers a total of 123 times in the lyrics of 41 songs for a grand total of 4,003,546.75. The 0.75 is the sum of "half" and "quarter" in the songs "Worlds Away" with the phrase "thinking with only half my mind" as well as "We Got the Beat" with "hang around 'til quarter after twelve."

The song "Girl of 100 Lists" is also one of seven songs with at least one personal name in the lyrics with Danny, Jim, Ricky and Terry. The remaining six songs are "Party Pose" (Andy Warhol and [Elio] Fiorucci), "The Whole World Lost Its Head" (Claudia Schiffer and Mary), "Beatnik Beach" (Lloyd Thaxton), "Daisy Chain" (Jane [Wiedlin]), "King of Confusion" ([Saint] Valentine) and "Skidmarks on My Heart" (Pontiac [Odawa war chief]).

Answer: Gold Star Studios

The Go-Go's recorded a five-song demo-tape at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, California during October 1980.

According to the website of Gold Star Studios, "Gold Star began as a 'demo' studio and even until the 1980s, bands such as The Go Go's were still using Gold Star to 'demo' or experiment with new material due to the fact that, as an independent studio, it afforded the artists greater creative freedom" (Gold Star Studios, 2004).

According to an audio-only recording on YouTube, the five songs on The Go-Go's demo tape are "How Much More," "We Got the Beat," "Lust to Love," "Surfing and Spying" and "Cool Jerk" (StarsOnESP, Go-Go's Demo Tape, 2021).

Answer: King of Confusion

Charlotte Caffey, Kathy Valentine and Bill Bartell wrote the song "King of Confusion" on the album "God Bless The Go-Go's" in 2001.

The Go-Go's originally released "King of Confusion" only in Japan. The Go-Go's released three versions of the album "God Bless The Go-Go's" in 2001. In the US, The Go-Go's released the album with 13 songs. In Europe, The Go-Go's included the one bonus track "I Think I Need Sleep" for a total of 14 songs. In Japan, The Go-Go's included the one bonus track "King of Confusion" also for a total of 14 songs.

In 2021, The Go-Go's reissued the album as a special edition with both bonus tracks for a total of 15 songs.

Answer: Made in Hollywood

Gina Schock released personal photos and memories in her book "Made In Hollywood: All Access with The Go-Go's" on 26 Oct 2021.

According to Gina's interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, "Schock is, of course, just as stoked for 'Made in Hollywood,' a 223-page collection of photos, mostly her own and mostly of the Go-Go's, along with stories and contributions from her bandmates and friends such as Jodie Foster, Martha Quinn, Paul 'Pee-wee Herman' Reubens, the B-52's' Kate Pierson, Eurythmics' Dave Stewart and others. 'I've been threatening for decades to do this book,' Schock notes. 'I unintentionally became the band archivist. I've got a million photos, all this ephemera. The girls in the band have all been like, "Gina, you really need to do that book!" It's been a long time in the making, but finally it's finished. It's been a real labor of love'" (Graff, 2021).

Answer: The Way You Dance

Jane Wiedlin and Kathy Valentine wrote the song "The Way You Dance" on the album "Vacation" in 1982.

Although Jane and Kathy wrote "dance" 13 times in the lyrics, the song "The Way You Dance" doesn't mention a specific dance. The Go-Go's did, however, write four dances a total of six times in the lyrics of three other songs with "Beatnik Beach" mentioning the Limbo, "Fashion Seekers" containing the Hustle and "We Got the Beat" including the Pony and the Watusi.

Although The Go-Go's didn't write the lyrics, The Go-Go's also mention dances in two other songs. The Go-Go's cover the song "Cool Jerk" from The Capitols' album "Dance the Cool Jerk with The Capitols" (1966) on the album "Vacation" (1982). The Go-Go's also cover Jessie Mae Robinson's song "Let's Have a Party" on the album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" (1994) and her lyrics contain, "I've never kissed a goon but I can shake a Chicken in the middle of the room."

Answer: Vision of Nowness

Kathy Valentine and Craig Ross wrote the song "Vision of Nowness" on the album "God Bless The Go-Go's" in 2001.

Kathy and Craig must have been playing Scrabble while writing the lyrics of "Vision of Nowness" because its phrase "to be temperamentally tranquilized" contains the first and fourth longest words in the lyrics of The Go-Go's 61 original songs at 15 and 12 letters, which are worth a total of 55 points.

The song "Vision of Nowness" is also one of three songs Kathy co-wrote with only outside writers. Kathy also exclusively teamed with Heatherton on the song "Apology" as well as Carlene Carter and Danny Harvey on "I'm the Only One."

Answer: Wild at the Greek

The Go-Go's released their third video album "Wild at the Greek" on 1 Aug 1985 with a runtime of 52 minutes.

The video album "Wild at the Greek" contains The Go-Go's performing 16 songs at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, California on (Wed) 8 Aug 1984. Cinemax premiered The Go-Go's concert two months later on (Sun) 7 Oct 1984.

According to Discogs, The Go-Go's released "Wild at the Greek" on three formats in two countries: VHS in US (1985), Laserdisc in Japan (1985) and US (1991) and DVD in Japan (2003).

Fun video formats! JVC introduced VHS in 1976 and its 1/2" magnetic tape contained within a plastic cassette provides an analog video resolution of 240 TV lines or the digital equivalent of 320 × 486i. After increasing the luminance bandwidth of VHS, JVC introduced Super VHS in 1987 with 420 TV lines (+ 180) or the digital equivalent of 560 × 486i. After 32 years, two months and 22 days, companies stopped manufacturing VHS cassettes in 2011.

MCA introduced DiscoVision in 1978 and after Pioneer purchased the majority stake of the technology, Pioneer marketed the optical videodisc system as LaserDisc in 1980. The 12" reflective aluminum disc provides an analog video resolution of 425 TV lines or the digital equivalent of 560 × 486i. Although a laser reads the data on a disc, the data is encoded as an analog frequency; therefore, the LaserDisc provides an analog video. After 22 years, nine months and ten days, Pioneer stopped manufacturing the LaserDisc in 2001.

Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Toshiba introduced the 4 3/4" Digital VideoDisc (DVD) in 1996 and the 650 nm red laser within the player provides a maximum video resolution of 720 × 480p or an analog equivalent of 540 TV lines. After employing a 405 nm blue-violet laser, Sony introduced Blu-ray in 2006 with a maximum video resolution of 7,680 × 4,320p aka Ultra High Definition (UHD). UHD doesn't have an analog equivalent because analog cameras have a maximum resolution of 720 TV lines. Although the technology of the optical disc has advanced to 33,177,600 pixels, there is still a demand for the 345,600 pixels of the DVD because production companies cannot "upscale" older shows originally recorded as a standard definition format (480 to 576 vertical lines) into a higher definition format.

Answer: Women Songwriters

The Go-Go's were inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame with 11 other inductees on 25 Jun 2021: Tawatha Agee, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jekalyn Carr, Roberta Flack, Dr. Veryl Howard, Bunny Hull, Naomi Judd, Klymaxx, Dawnn Lewis, Valerie Simpson and Deniece Williams.

According to the website of the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame, "The Go-Go's are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1978. Credited as simply Go-Go's on all of their US releases, the quintet rose to fame during the early 1980s. The band's 1981 debut album, "Beauty and the Beat," entered Billboard's Top LPs & Tape chart in the issue dated August 1, 1981. The album yielded two of the Go-Go's three biggest Hot 100 hits: "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "We Got the Beat". The group was nominated for the Best New Artist award at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards and have sold more than seven million records worldwide" (Women Songwriters Hall of Fame, 2021).

The Go-Go's album "Beauty and the Beat" not only "entered" the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart but remained on this chart for 72 weeks from 1 Aug 1981 to 17 Dec 1982. After 31 weeks, The Go-Go's debut album reached number one and remained at the top of this chart for six weeks from 6 Mar to 10 Apr 1982. Seventy-two weeks on a music chart is one year, four months and 16 days.

According to MTV video jockey Martha Quinn's interview in the documentary "The Go-Go's," "For The Go-Go's to have a debut album go to number one, that's something that only like 26 other artists have done, like, you know, the biggies, Elvis, The Beatles. They made history" (Ellwood, 2020).

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), 22 weeks after The Go-Go's released "Beauty and the Beat" on 8 Jul 1981, RIAA certified The Go-Go's debut album as Gold on 15 Dec 1981. Eleven weeks after their Gold certification, RIAA certified "Beauty and the Beat" as Platinum on 2 Mar 1982 and 2× Platinum on 14 Nov 1984.

On 1 Jul 2022, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Beauty and the Beat" at number 60 on the 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time for being "an image of Southern California that's just as indelible as anything by the Eagles or Doors" (Rolling Stone, 2022).