Belinda Carlisle on the Best (and Worst) of The Go-Go's

IN 1982, the Go-Go’s became the first and only (yes, still) all-women band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to have a No. 1 album on the Billboard charts with 1981’s Beauty and the Beat.

By Devon Ivie

The band cut their teeth in the L.A. punk scene before pivoting to pop, and in the decades since, vocalist Belinda Carlisle, lead guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist Jane Wiedlin, bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock have remained intermittently active. Recently, they released a new single, participated in a documentary called The Go-Go’s, and got their first Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination—an honor for which Carlisle says it’s about damn time. Speaking from her home in Thailand, the singer shared her personal Go-Go’s highs and lows.

The song that makes her the happiest to perform

“Our Lips Are Sealed.” I love the unusual chord progression. In the very early punk days, Jane and I lived in a punk-rock commune in an old apartment building off Hollywood Boulevard called the Canterbury—it’s pretty infamous. I remember going to her apartment, and she was writing songs with masking tape on the frets of her guitar. “Our Lips Are Sealed” was one of those songs.

The song she wishes the Go-Go’s never recorded