The Go-Go's 10 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Charlotte Caffey

Charlotte solely wrote the two words "Surf! Spy!" for the song "Surfing and Spying." Of the 12 original 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.

In 1981, The Go-Go's only released the instrumental "Surfing and Spying" on the B-side of the single "Our Lips Are Sealed" and not on the album "Beauty and the Beat." Thirteen years later in 1994, however, The Go-Go's did include this B-side surf song on their retrospective album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's."

Answer: George Morton

The Go-Go's cover the song "Remember (Walking in the Sand)"; however, George "Shadow" Morton wrote the lyrics and The Shangri-Las originally released this song as a single in 1964.

The recording of "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" on the album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" is during a concert at Palos Verdes High School in Los Angeles, California on 4 Dec 1981.

According to SecondHandSongs, 37 artists also recorded "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" on a single, album or soundtrack; and according to Setlist.fm, 18 artists performed "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" during 121 live shows since The Shangri-Las first performed this song on 7 Sep 1964 during Murray The K's Big Holiday Show at the Brooklyn Fox Theater in New York City.

Do you "Remember (Walking in the Sand)," Piano Man? According to Billy Joel's interview with "Q" magazine, a 15-year-old Joel was playing piano during a session for "the stranger" in July 1964, "There's two songs. One's called 'Leader Of The Pack' and the other is called 'Remember (Walking In The Sand)' and this is pretty easy stuff to play and then Shadow comes in. He's a pretty strange guy, Shadow. He's wearing this big cape and dark glasses and he played the producer role to the hilt. I think he had a thing about Phil Spector" (Hibbert, 1987).

Answer: Bobby and Larson Paine

The Go-Go's cover the song "Johnny Are You Queer?"; however, Bobby and Larson Paine wrote the lyrics and Josie Cotton originally released the song as a single in 1981.

Fear, beer, queer, premier...this notorious song has a prickly history.

In 1978, Philo Cramer and John Clancy of the punk band Fear co-wrote "Fetch Me One More Beer" and recorded it with 12 other songs on a demo tape at Paradise Studios in Burbank, California. While managing The Go-Go's, the Paine brothers heard the song, rewrote the lyrics and changed the title to "Johnny Are You Queer?"

According to Josie Cotton's interview with Magnet Magazine, "After they rewrote 'Johnny Are You Queer?' the Paine brothers had the Go-Go's perform it in their live show. It became the band's big song, erupting in total anarchy at the end of the night" (Hedley, 2006).

After The Go-Go's made the song popular, Fear challenged the Paines to a coin toss for the publishing rights and the Paines won. After a dispute to tour the UK with the bands Madness and The Specials in 1980, The Go-Go's severed their relationship with the Paines and the Paines forbade The Go-Go's to perform the song.

Larson Paine's girlfriend, Josie Cotton, records "Johnny Are You Queer?" as a demo, and the song reaches number eight on Canada RPM Top Singles chart and number 38 on Billboard Club Play Singles during 1981 and 1982.

Two years before Josie's single, however, the premiere recording of "Johnny Are You Queer?" is The Go-Go's at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco on 1 Aug 1979, and The Go-Go's released this first-ever recording on their retrospective album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" in 1994.

Answer: Can't Stop the World

After releasing their debut album "Beauty and the Beat," The Go-Go's re-released "We Got the Beat" backed with "Can't Stop the World" as a single in the US.

The revised "We Got the Beat" adds a drumming intro, another 17 seconds and not only did this version rank on more charts, but higher on the charts. The revised "We Got the Beat" ranked on six music charts in three countries for 19 weeks from 30 Jan to 11 Jun 1982 peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100: Australia, Canada (2) and the United States (3).

According to Dave Robinson, co-founder of UK-based Stiff Records, interview in the documentary "The Go-Go's," "I remember seeing 'We've Got the Beat' as a potential single, which was my talent to find the door opener. I tried to publish the song 'cause I could see that it would do well. Ginger [The Go-Go's manager], I think, was a bit more knowledgeable about the idea of hold onto what you've got" (Ellwood, 2020).

The chart hit "We Got the Beat" also has the distinction of being the most re-released song for The Go-Go's.
1) Non-album single (Jul 1980)
2) Studio album "Beauty and the Beat" (Jul 1981)
3) Single-2 from "Beauty and the Beat" (Jan 1982)
4) Video album "Totally Go-Go's!" (Sep 1982)
5) Video album "Prime Time" (Feb 1985)
6) Video album "Wild at the Greek" (Aug 1985)
7) Single-1 from compilation album "Greatest" (Oct 1990)
8) Compilation album "Greatest" (Oct 1990)
9) Retrospective album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" (Oct 1994)
10) Compilation album "VH1 Behind the Music: Go-Go's Collection" (May 2000)
11) Video album "Live in Central Park" (Jun 2001)

Answer: Tact

Although each Go-Go is very tactful, Tact is not printed on the album cover of "God Bless The Go-Go's."

On the cover of "God Bless The Go-Go's," The Go-Go's are posed and dressed on prayer cards to evoke images of the Virgin Mary with halo effects added in post-production. Jane is Purity, Belinda is Chastity, Charlotte is Modesty, Gina is Mercy and Kathy is Honesty. The Go-Go's previous manager, Ginger Canzoneri, was Art Director for the album in 2001 and perhaps should be Temperance after The Go-Go's fired her in 1982.

You're a green one, Jane Drano. Although The Go-Go's were to wear hooded habits to cover their heads for the artwork, someone's hair would still be a problem because according to photographer Maryanne Bilham's interview with RockPoP Gallery, "Jane Wiedlin had green hair at the time, so this was another interesting challenge we needed to work through. For this work, we selected a stylist named Robin Slater, who is well-known in Hollywood for her feature work on films such as 'Memoirs of a Geisha,' 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'The Grinch'" (Goldstein, 2007).

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

The compilation album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" chronicles The Go-Go's legacy.

The albums "Greatest" and "VH1 Behind the Music" only contain songs from The Go-Go's first three albums, and "Hellogg's Punk Tarts" is a bootleg recording of The Go-Go's at the Whiskey a Go Go on 4 Oct 1978.

The earliest recording on their retrospective album is a rehearsal of Jane's punk song "Living at the Canterbury" during Feb 1979 with originalists Margot Olavarria and Elissa Bello. The album also contains a rehearsal of "Blades" during January 1980, which is Margot's only lyrical credit during her two years and ten months with The Go-Go's.

The latest songs are three Reunion Tracks recorded for the album: "Beautiful," "Good Girl" and "The Whole World Lost Its Head."

Answer: Reflection

In the lyrics, Kathy is very cagey about her true feelings so any serious thought (reflection), idea or vision you may have formed about her will just be an illusion or chimera because "you'll never get what you see" for Kathy will be an "untouchable reflection," "your curiosity," a momentary "Vision of Nowness."

The Go-Go's have colored our world! "Vision of Nowness" is one of four songs with "blue" in the lyrics along with "Automatic Rainy Day," "Beneath The Blue Sky" and "Living at the Canterbury."

The songs "London Boys" and "Beatnik Beach" contains "black" a total of three times, "Screaming" glooms "grey" eight times, "Blades" bleeds "red" one time and "London Boys" returns to the palette with "white" twice.

The Go-Go's don't use the rhymeless "orange" in any lyrics; however, Charlotte does caution your "dayglo slacks" in "Fashion Seekers" while Jane collects "colored cord" in "Fun with Ropes."

Answer: Ugliest Girl in the World

Bob Dylan released "Ugliest Girl in the World" on the album "Down in the Groove" in 1988.

The globetrotting Kathy is the only Go-Go with lyrical credit on all three of The Go-Go's "worldly" songs.

Fun Logic: Who is the most "beautiful Go-Go in the world"? Let's analyze their lyrics. The Go-Go's wrote "beautiful" 13 times in one song, "Go Go" five times in five songs, the term "in the" 24 times in 15 songs and "world" 60 times in 13 songs.

Of the 28 songs containing any of the keywords "beautiful," "Go Go," "in the" and "world," Jane has lyrical credit on 24; therefore, Jane is the most "beautiful Go-Go in the world" by composing 86% of the lyrics. Charlotte is runner-up at 19 songs (68%).

Answer: Cool Jerk

The Go-Go's covered all four songs but only their cover of "Cool Jerk" from their compilation album "Greatest" ranked on a music chart.

Donald Storball wrote "Cool Jerk" and the Capitols originally released as a single in 1966. In the lyrics, Donald included, "The happiest cat you ever did see."

The Go-Go's "Cool Jerk" ranked on two music charts in the United Kingdom for four weeks from 26 Jan to 8 Feb 1991 peaking at number 29 on the UK Airplay Chart.

Answer: London Boys

The song "London Boys" from the album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" fancies English boys.

Jane wrote her greatest chart hit with a London boy! According to Jane's interview in the documentary "The Go-Go's," after spending a lot of time with Terry Hall while touring England with his band, "Terry stayed in touch. He would send me letters, and in one letter he talked about how he dreamed of having his own band. And he sent me a bunch of lyrics. And he said, 'I'm going to write these songs.' I saw the lyrical beginning to 'Our Lips Are Sealed'" (Ellwood, 2020).