The Go-Go's 9 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jane Wiedlin

Jane solely wrote "This Old Feeling" and it's one of three songs Jane solely wrote 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 solely wrote eight songs for The Go-Go's and in the lyrics of five, she uses "love" 13 times; in the lyrics of six, she expresses her "heart" 17 times and in the lyrics of four, Jane couples "love" with "heart" 25 times.

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

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 this song for the movie "Loving You" in 1957.

In addition to "Let's Have a Party," The Go-Go's covered three more songs on their retrospective album:
1) "Cool Jerk" was written by Donald Storball and the Capitols originally released as a single in 1966.
2) "Johnny Are You Queer?" was written by Bobby and Larson Paine and Josie Cotton originally released as a single in 1981.
3) "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" was written by George Morton and The Shangri-Las originally released as a single in 1964.

Answer: Jane Wiedlin

Of The Go-Go's 11 songs on the album "Talk Show" and its three singles, Jane solely wrote two and co-wrote five; therefore, Jane contributed the most by composing 38% of the lyrics on the album. In addition to her two sole-writing credits, Jane teamed with Ron and Russell Mael on "Yes or No" to be the only Go-Go with lyrical credit on three songs.

Speaking of talk shows, The Go-Go's were interviewed on six talk shows eight times: "No Holds Barred" (CBS) on 12 Sep 1980, "Mike Douglas Show" on 23 Oct 1981, "Entertainment this Week" on 6 Mar 1982 and 5 Aug 1984, "Tonight Show" on 7 Aug 1984 and 13 Dec 1990, "Entertainment Tonight" on 29 Mar 1990 and "Late Night with David Letterman" on 10 Nov 1990.

The Go-Go's also appeared on the TV show "Solid Gold" 11 times, the British TV show "Top of the Pops" three times and "American Bandstand" one time. On 26 Oct 1985, Gina drummed with the band a-ha for the song "Take on Me" during Season 15 Episode 4 of Soul Train.

Answer: Mercenary

The Go-Go's re-released "Yes or No" backed with "Mercenary" as a single on 15 Sep 1984.

Ron and Russell Mael of the band Sparks not only co-wrote "Yes or No" with Jane, but Jane also sang vocals on "Lucky Me, Lucky You" and "Cool Places" on Sparks' album "In Outer Space" on 13 Apr 1983.

Everything Jane touches sparks the charts because "Cool Places" ranked on three music charts in the United States and ignited to number 13 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play, and The Go-Go's "Yes or No" sparkled at number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The 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 for Kathy teamed with Carlene Carter and Danny Harvey on "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 covered three more songs on their retrospective album:
1) "Johnny Are You Queer?" was written by Bobby and Larson Paine and Josie Cotton originally released as a single in 1981.
2) "Let's Have a Party" was written by Jessie Mae Robinson and Elvis Presley originally released for the film "Loving You" in 1957.
3) "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" was written by George Morton and The Shangri-Las originally released as a single in 1964.

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

The Go-Go's album "VH1 Behind the Music" is the only album to not produce any singles.

The Go-Go's album "Greatest" produced "Cool Jerk" backed with "We Got the Beat" as a single, and "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" produced "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 1994: CD Maxi (4 3/4"), CD Mini (3 5/32"), cassette tape and vinyl record (7").

Answer: The Go-Go's

According to Charlotte's interview with the 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).

According to a review of "Daisy Chain" on The Delete Bin, "As rock star tales go, theirs is as compelling as they come as a bona fide American success story. But like so many stories of success, its main characters did not escape unscathed. There were rushes of joy and feelings of invulnerability while reaching the top that only young people can feel in their purest forms. But there was also pressure and pain for which people in their early twenties have no workable frame of reference to fully understand or deal with" (Jones, 2024).

Answer: All Tomorrow's Parties

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

Although The Go-Go's did not cover "All Tomorrow's Parties" on an album or single, The Go-Go's have sampled a line from this song during live 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 is the first line in the chorus of "All Tomorrow's Parties" and it might be Jane's tribute to Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol, Nico or Jane just likes the song.

Jane's tribute to Velvet Underground. 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 "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!

Jane's tribute to Andy Warhol. 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 Andy Warhol in the lyrics of "Party Pose" on their retrospective album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" (1994).

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

Go-Go's Fun Test! According to the video on YouTube, The Go-Go's perform "Automatic" during a show at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel [35:08] 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 irritably 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" on 19 Mar 1984.

The Go-Go's "Yes or No" ranked on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks from 22 Sep to 12 Oct 1984 peaking at number 84. Although a chart hit, "Yes or No" has become an ostracized song.

"Talk Show" was the last album before Jane quit The Go-Go's on 12 Oct 1984. Of the 11 songs on "Talk Show," three ranked on the music charts. Of these three chart hits, 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 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 only being performed at 9% of their shows since 1990.

According to Jane's interview in the documentary "The Go-Go's," "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 chart 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 even perform it...and there will be no "Yes or No" about it.

Answer: Our Lips Are Sealed

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

"London Boys" is Jane's first song and she co-wrote it with Don Bolles, who was the drummer with the punk bands Germs, Nervous Gender, 45 Grave, Celebrity Skin, Heavy Metal Frogs, Krazy Homicide, Liars and the Exterminators. According to Discogs, Bolles has released three albums.

Although it's one of their earliest songs, The Go-Go's didn't release "London Boys" until 16 years later on their retrospective album "Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's" in 1994. According to Setlist.fm, The Go-Go's have performed "London Boys" 30 times and is tied with "Turn to You" and "Insincere" for their 26th most-performed songs at shows.