When Belinda Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin made history, they made it together.
The year was 1981 and the pair were two-fifths of the ground-breaking, all-girl rock band The Go-Go's, Carlisle on lead vocal, Wiedlin on lead guitar. Now keep in mind, they weren't the first all-girl rock band in history -- the band Fanny had beaten them to the punch in the 1970s with Top 40 songs "Charity Ball" and "Butter Boy." And then there was the ground-breaking group of teenage female rockers, The Runaways, that featured two future Top 40 artists, Joan Jett and Lita Ford.
But The Go-Go's, who admitted they had no idea how to play music when they got involved in the Los Angeles punk rock scene in 1978, made their Top 40 debut in 1981 with the song that has become an early '80s classic, "Our Lips Are Sealed." It went to No. 20, but it would be the follow-up in 1982 that helped to establish history as "We Got The Beat" went to No. 2 in April, the first-ever Top 10 hit for an all-female rock band. That song -- along with "Our Lips Are Sealed" -- came from the band's IRS Records album, "Beauty And The Beat," which became the first album in history by an all-female rock band to hit No. 1.
The Go-Gos, who were co-created by both Carlisle and Wiedlin, would continue to hit the chart with "Vacation" in 1982 and "Head Over Heels" and "Turn To You" in 1984 before internal strife within the group forced the band to call it a day by 1985.
Naturally, lead singer Carlisle would be the first of the Go-Go's to make it big with 1986's Top 5 hit "Mad About You." A year later, she released the album, "Heaven On Earth," and the first single from that album, "Heaven Is A Place On Earth," went to No. 1, the first No. 1 by any of the former Go-Go members. Carlisle's hit streak from the album continued with the hit song "I Get Weak," which climbed to No. 2 in the winter of 1988.
And in April, Carlisle hit the Top 40 with her third hit from "Heaven On Earth" when "Circle In The Sand," another hit song co-written by the team of Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley.
But while Carlisle's latest single was flying up the chart, she would be joined on the Top 40 a month later. After the breakup of the Go-Go's, Wiedlin jumped into her solo career with her self-titled 1985 debut album, but got little favor from critics for the album because her not-so-strong voice even if the eclectic music she was creating was very good and praise-worthy.
But Wiedlin, the moving force as a songwriter in the band with guitarist-keyboardist Charlotte Caffey, was not deterred by the criticism. While she dabbled in small roles as an actress in movies such as Clue, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Sleeping Beauty, she was back into the studio in late 1987 to record "Fur," which featured a bare-shouldered Wiedlin holding a rabbit. (Wiedlin has been a long-time animal rights activist.)
For "Fur," Wiedlin broached a number of topics such as fidelity ("Homeboy"), love ("One Heart One Way," and "Lovers Night"), ambition ("Inside A Dream") and, of course, her own objections to the fur trade and how she felt about the treatment of animals (the title track, "Fur"). But one song on the album had Top 40 pop hit potential, a song she co-wrote with Peter Rafelson, the son of Bob Rafelson, who co-created the TV show The Monkees in the 1960s.
That song was "Rush Hour," featuring a pounding keyboard backdrop played by Robert Fisher. It was the catchiest tune for radio and was released in April 1988.
And so it came the week of June 11, 1988 that for the first time in their history, two members of the The Go-Go's made it to the Top 40 and both were on the chart the same week. As "Circle In The Sand" climbed into the Top 10 at No. 9, up two places from No. 11 the week before, Wiedlin's first Top 40 made its debut as "Rush Hour," in its sixth week on the Billboard Hot 100, debuted at No. 33.
A week later, Carlisle's hit would peak at No. 7 before heading down. Two weeks later, Wiedlin's hit would eclipse Carlisle's on the chart, moving to No. 19, while "Circle" dropped to No. 23. On July 23, 1988, "Rush Hour" followed "Circle In The Sand" into the Top 10 at No. 10. A week later, it wold peak at No. 9.
Unfortunately, Wiedlin did not have a follow-up single and would never have another Top 40 solo hit. Carlisle, meanwhile, would score two more Top 40 hits solo in 1989 with "Leave A Light On," featuring the recognizable guitar work of the late, great Beatle George Harrison, peaking at No. 11 and "Summer Rain" climbing to No. 30.
Like a lot of artists, the 1990s pretty much ended Carlisle's solo success. And there was only one thing left to do: In 1999, twice after they had reunited for various events, the original Go-Go's of Carlisle, Wiedlin, Caffey, drummer Gina Schock and bassist Kathy Valentine reunited for a tour. They've been touring on and off ever since and in 2001, released their fourth album, and first in 17 years, "God Bless The Go-Go's."
In 2013, Valentine left the band, citing "irreconcilable differences," then suing the band two months later for "abuse of control" and depriving her of her 20 percent royalties within the band. She and the other bandmates would settle their case out of court in early 2014 and since Valentine's departure, the band has toured as a quartet with occasional adjunct bass player Abby Travis.
The Go-Go's were a history-making band together in the early 1980s. And in 1988, three years after the breakup, they were still making history thanks to its co-creators as solo stars.
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