40 Years In the past: The Go-Go’s Take ‘Magnificence and the Beat’ to No. 1

The Go-Go’s had been an anomaly within the late-’70s Los Angeles punk scene. An all-female band taking part in devices? Such a factor was virtually unprecedented, and even questionably welcomed.

Over time, nonetheless, the Go-Go’s grew to be inevitable, tightening up their taking part in and songwriting. After a number of personnel adjustments, they settled on an unbeatable lineup of singer Belinda Carlisle, guitarists Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey, drummer Gina Schock and – the ultimate piece of the proverbial puzzle – bassist Kathy Valentine.

Able to tackle the world, they signed with I.R.S. Information in 1981. Two significantly pleasing features of their cope with the label had been the placement the place they’d be recording the debut album Magnificence and the Beat (New York Metropolis), and the manufacturing group (Richard Gottehrer and Rob Freeman) assigned to them.

For 5 musicians who loved having an excellent time, the Massive Apple was a giant playground. “The Go-Go’s hit New York like we owned it,” Valentine remembered in her e book All I Ever Wished: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir. “Our vitality and pleasure gave us the sort of edge Manhattan embraces.”

That “sort of edge” included discovering a few of their favourite indulgences in a brand new locale.

“We had been both consuming and partying within the studio or hungover from the evening earlier than,” Carlisle recalled in her memoir, Lips Unsealed. “Kathy and I went to golf equipment each evening and stayed out till all hours. When the golf equipment closed round 2AM, we rounded up whoever was left and went to the after-hours joints the place we sang, performed consuming video games, and flirted till we crawled out at round eight within the morning.”

Based on Wiedlin, the band’s lodging had been good for his or her party-forward vibe throughout their time in New York Metropolis.

“That lodge was super-run down, however the rooms had been large. All of the rooms had been like suites,” she instructed Vulture in 2021. “On the time it was fairly seedy, however it was near every part. … Belinda, Kathy, and I had been continually looking for boys. If anyone introduced a boy house to their lodge room, we’d drag a mattress into the hallway. [Laughs.] That was a sign to not are available in.”

Watch the ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’ Video by the Go-Go’s

The band members’ bodily situation from their late nights could not assist however seep into their work atmosphere. “Having the time of our lives got here near overshadowing our motive for being there – oh yeah, to make a report,” Valentine added. “We had been hungover and distracted, impatient and cheeky, in love and in lust, indulgent and hungry, anticipating solely what may occur later within the evening.”

Their work was guided by songwriter, producer and Sire Information co-founder Gottehrer and engineer/co-producer Freeman, who had labored on debut albums by the Ramones, Blondie and Richard Hell. (Gottehrer additionally produced the latter two.)

One of many points Gottehrer targeted on with the Go-Go’s was the breakneck tempo of a lot of their songs – a terrific asset within the golf equipment, however one which didn’t translate so nicely onto a report.

“He was an excellent trainer and taught us quite a bit about recording,” Schock instructed USA Right this moment in 2021, “and the very first thing he mentioned was, ‘Gina, it is advisable decelerate all of the songs as a result of every part is so quick I can not recognize the nice melodies.'”

Their producer “needed the songs to be performed slower, so the melodies and hooks had room to breathe. We understood his strategy and agreed,” Valentine concurred in All I Ever Wished. “When he might, he divided the guitars up, separating the 2 equivalent strumming components Jane and Charlotte typically performed, getting one or each of them to do mechanical ‘stabs’ on a beat as an alternative, like on the music ‘Tonite.'”

Gottehrer chosen 10 songs from the band’s repertoire, and so they set about monitoring them for Magnificence and the Beat. There have been some apparent selections, proper off the bat.

“‘Our Lips Are Sealed’ was a gem that we would performed for a yr,” Carlisle mentioned in her memoir. “Jane had gotten concerned with [ska band] the Specials’ lead singer Terry Corridor after we’d been in London, however he had a girlfriend. After we left, he despatched Jane a letter about their difficult state of affairs. She set a number of the traces from that letter to music, added some lyrics of her personal … and voila, she had ‘Our Lips Are Sealed.’ I knew it was successful as quickly as I heard it, and I used to be proper.”

Hearken to ‘Tonite’ by  the Go-Go’s 

One other apparent choice for Gottehrer was the group’s greatest hit, “We Obtained the Beat,” although the Go-Go’s initially balked at having it on the report. An earlier model of the music, launched as a single on Stiff Information within the U.Ok., had been a modest hit, and the band was initially uncertain about rerecording it for Magnificence and the Beat. They proceeded to whiff on the primary take.

“I keep in mind everybody having bother laying down the fundamental tracks for ‘We Obtained the Beat,'” Carlisle recalled, “which we had been redoing from the U.Ok. model. Everybody’s timing was a bit off. We took a break, ordered in pizza, and tried it once more. We nailed it on the primary take. Meals at all times labored with us.”

The defiant “Our Lips Are Sealed” and propulsive “We Obtained the Beat” turned Prime 20 U.S. hits, however there are treasures aplenty to be discovered all through Magnificence and the Beat – treasures the band’s members are solely too comfortable to level out.

Caffey praised the regret-laden “Lust to Love” within the liner notes of the 1994 compilation Return to the Valley of the Go-Go’s. “I really like this music,” she wrote. “Jane confirmed me these ultra-cool lyrics and I simply occurred to have this guitar riff and a few music that match her lyrics completely. That appeared to occur quite a bit.”

Carlisle singled out “You Cannot Stroll in Your Sleep (If You Cannot Sleep)“: “[A] Charlotte and Jane collaboration, [the song] was about Jane’s drawback with insomnia and occasional tendency to sleepwalk.” The observe’s manic, quasi-“Bo Diddley” rhythm is strictly the sort of beat that may maintain one up at evening.

“I used to be pleased with the numerous material of the songs,” Valentine famous in her memoir. “Even the songs coping with relationships or romance weren’t sappy love songs. ‘Lust to Love’ and ‘Fading Quick’ portrayed sturdy ladies who knew what they needed.”

When the Go-Go’s completed monitoring the ten songs Gottehrer chosen, he instructed them they wanted another to spherical out the album. Gottehrer prompt a canopy of a music by Ellie Greenwich. She’d co-written a number of the nice girl-group anthems in pop music historical past, together with hits by the Crystals (“Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Then He Kissed Me”), the Ronettes (“Be My Child”), the Shangri-Las (“Chief of the Pack”) and others. Nonetheless, the band declined. “Richard has spot-on instincts, however the band took a united stand towards him,” Valentine remembered. “Not as a result of the music lacked something – however as a result of everybody felt strongly that solely our personal songs ought to go on the report.”

Watch the ‘We Obtained the Beat’ Video by the Go-Go’s

Caffey prompt they add “Cannot Cease the World,” a music Valentine had delivered to the group. “When everybody agreed it belonged on the report,” Valentine mentioned in All I Ever Wished, “the Go-Go’s turned my household, the one factor that mattered to me.”

One other key element to Magnificence and the Beat was its cowl artwork – a shot of the band members wrapped in towels sporting face cream on the entrance, with pictures of every in bubble baths on the again. Artwork course is credited to Michael Doud, who designed iconic album imagery for Led Zeppelin‘s Bodily Graffiti, Supertramp‘s Breakfast in America and Coronary heart‘s Canine and Butterfly), amongst others. However Carlisle claims possession of the thought.

“I got here up with the idea for the album’s back and front cowl earlier than we ever left L.A.,” Carlisle wrote in Lips Unsealed. “I believed placing us in face masks and carrying solely towels was a glance that may be timeless. Take away our identities and garments and we had been ladies who could be simply as present in 25 years as we had been then – and I feel I used to be proper.”

Schock added that “these towels on the quilt had quite a bit to do with the truth that we had no cash. Our supervisor, Ginger [Canzoneri], went to Macy’s in New York and acquired these towels. We used them for the photograph shoot and after that, she introduced them again.”

Recording accomplished, the Go-Go’s headed again west and commenced getting ready to unleash their debut on the world. They had been rehearsing in a Los Angeles studio when a duplicate of Magnificence and the Beat arrived from I.R.S.

“We ran out excitedly to the car parking zone and listened to it from begin to end in somebody’s automotive,” Carlisle remembered. “Our hopes had been so excessive and earlier than we pushed the play button we had been all shushing each other. Then the drums kicked into the primary reduce, ‘Our Lips Are Sealed,’ and we quieted down. We let the subsequent 10 tracks play with out too many feedback both approach and eventually, after about 35 minutes, we simply checked out each other for reactions.”

The band’s response was muted, at finest.

“We weren’t comfortable – or as comfortable as we had hoped,” Carlisle continued. “Within the studio, we had thought we had been making a terrific punk album. On listening to the ultimate model, it sounded extra pop than we had anticipated. … Everybody had little criticisms. In my case, I used to be horrified by my vocals. They’d been sped up and I discovered it painful to listen to myself race by way of these songs.”

Hearken to ‘Fading Quick’ by the Go-Go’s 

They went again to Miles Copeland, president of I.R.S., and requested for the album to be remixed. He declined, telling the Go-Go’s he liked the report and that it sounded precisely the best way he had hoped it could.

Carlisle famous her and the band’s opinions of Magnificence and the Beat mellowed rapidly. “[A]s a wider viewers responded positively to the album,” she wrote in Lips Unsealed, “all of us started to alter our opinion and suppose, ‘Oh, it isn’t that dangerous.'”

Magnificence and the Beat lastly reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on April 6, 1982, some eight months after its launch. The gradual, regular climb to the highest was a results of MTV publicity and relentless, high-profile touring.

The Go-Go’s had been opening for the Police on the large Ghost within the Machine tour when Magnificence and the Beat hit No. 1. One may suppose the headliners would react negatively to their help act outshining them on the charts, however Carlisle mentioned that could not have been farther from the reality.

“Their album dropped again to No. 6, and we had been opening for them,” she instructed Rolling Stone in 2016. “Sting got here into our dressing room with a bottle of champagne and mentioned congratulations. They had been actually gracious and candy about it.”

Wiedlin instructed Vulture that the Police “had been nice gents about it. It was good as a result of they might’ve been buttheads or kicked us off the tour. [Laughs.] They had been very good about it. However they had been so standard that I do not suppose they’d something to fret about.”

Quick ahead practically 4 many years because the Go-Go’s earned induction into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame, and Magnificence and the Beat was nonetheless by some means the one album written and carried out by an all-female rock band to hit No. 1 – a proven fact that shocked Carlisle.

“I do not perceive why there aren’t extra,” she instructed Rolling Stone. “You’d suppose after the Go-Go’s, you’ll have much more. You had the Bangles, you had L7 and others. There needs to be a whole lot of bands just like the Go-Go’s on the market however there aren’t.”

Why the Go-Go’s ‘Flipped Out’ Over Rock Corridor Induction