Years after their first Top 40 hit came and went, Jane Wiedlin looked at the music video of the song that made her band, the Go-Go's, a smash hit, and winces.
"I have horrible '80s poodle hair in it," she told MTV in 2011.
But then a warm thought comes over her when remembering how she and the rest of her band mates drove around Los Angeles in shooting the landmark music video for the group. ""But there's a simplicity and innocence to the video that appeals to me."
When the Go-Go's began their careers in southern California in 1978, Wiedlin and lead singer Belinda Carlisle admitted they really didn't know how to play their instruments. As a matter of fact, they figured they didn't have to because they were considered a "punk" band.
But as the band evolved, so, too, was its penchant for music. They were slowly moving away from the punk music they thought could make them an easy buck and evolving into a pop band with a rocker's taste to it. The band started bringing in more people who could understand the musical side of things. Bass player Kathy Valentine came in to the group in 1981 to replace original bassist Margot Olavarria. Keyboardist-guitarist Charlotte Caffey joined the band and Gina Schock took over as the band's drummer for original drummer Elissa Bello.
They recorded a demo for a song they wrote called "We Got The Beat" and caught the ears and eyes of British label Stiff Records in 1980. They signed them. Before long, they landed a record deal in this country on I.R.S. Records for president Miles Copeland. That spring and summer, the band was ready to make the first big step in their careers by recording a debut album for veteran producer Richard Gottehrer.
One song they put out there was called "Our Lips Are Sealed." Wiedlin wrote the song while the band was touring the U.S., opening for the hot British reggae/ska band The Specials. Wiedlin was smitten by lead singer Terry Hall, who struck up not only a friendship with Wiedlin, but a behind-the-scenes romance. There was one problem though -- Hall had a girlfriend back in England and anything and everything was on the down low.
It was at that time they wrote "Our Lips Are Sealed," where they put their feelings into this composition. Featuring Schock's pounding backbeat opening, the song had a solid feel to it from start to finish and the band liked it. So did Gottehrer and Copeland, who when the album was officially done and released, insisted that "Our Lips Are Sealed" should be the leadoff single.
So as the song was being released by I.R.S. Records here, the band went off to do the music video, though they weren't all crazy about the idea. Copeland told them they were doing the video whether they liked it or not or were enthusiastic over it or not. As a matter of fact, Copeland was using some of the money for his brother's band to do a music video ... that is brother Stewart Copeland, the drummer of The Police.
So the idea was simple -- if you weren't enthusiastic, well, heck, make yourself enthusiastic and play along.
And so the band did. They searched all of the Los Angeles area for the car that would fit all five members and be their "fun" car. They found what they were looking for -- a 1960 Buick -- at, of all places, Rent-A-Wreck. The purpose of the car was to drive around Los Angeles, scoping places out to hang at or to just ride around. They got to do so, stopping places to shop and then later in the shoot, going to the Electric fountain at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, just to play around in the fountain. Said Wiedlin of shooting at the fountain, "I thought at any moment the cops were going to come (and arrest them). This is gonna be so cool."
By the end of the spring of 1981, the band, Gottehrer and co-producer Rob Freeman had wrapped up work on "Beauty And The Beat." And the consensus from everyone involved with the album that the first single from the album be "Our Lips Are Sealed" and to save the one with the biggest "hit potential," "We Got The Beat," as the next release.
And so on the week of August 29, 1981, "Our Lips Are Sealed" debuted at a modest No. 90 on the Billboard Hot 100. The next week, it moved up 10 places to No. 80, then leaped an impressive 14 places to No. 66 the week after that. The song was on its way to becoming a big hit. Three weeks later, it was sitting at No. 45 and ready to crack the Top 40. The next week, it was one step away from the Top 40 at No. 41.
But then the road block ... "Our Lips Are Sealed" was stopped at No. 41 for the second straight week in its eighth week on the Hot 100, teetering on the brink of missing out on the Top 40, a big blow to the band and the record company if the song didn't make it into the Top 40 after showing such promise.
Then came the week of October 24, 1981. Somehow, it showed enough strength to leap one more notch and barely make the Top 40 at No. 40. No matter what happened from here, at least Belinda, Jane, Charlotte, Kathy and Gina had a Top 40 hit. They became the second all-girl band to hit the Top 40 after Fanny scored a pair of Top 40 hits -- "Charity Ball" in 1971 and "Butter Boy" in 1975 -- in the 1970s.
However, the band was beginning to get another boost to their careers -- the fledgling new network, Music Television aka MTV, was playing that silly, fun video the ladies had no original plans of making in the first place in heavy rotation, and giving the Go-Go's the exposure that they needed. It showed on the chart, too.
On the week of November 7, 1981, "Our Lips Are Sealed" got a second wind and moved up four places from No. 39 to No. 35. The next week, it climbed five places to No. 30. Then it jumped to No. 26, then No. 23, then No. 21 and then No. 20 on the week of December 12, 1981, where the song would peak for two straight weeks before starting to fall back. As a matter of fact, the song would stay in the Top 40 until the week of January 16, 1982 before falling off for good after 13 weeks.
In the end, "Our Lips Are Sealed" spent 30 weeks total on the Hot 100, not bad for a debut single. By the time "Our Lips Are Sealed" fell off the chart, the anticipated follow-up, "We Got The Beat," had already cracked the Top 5 and peaked at No. 2 for three weeks behind Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' rock anthem "I Love Rock 'N Roll."
Before the band broke up in 1985 and their hit-making days were all but over, the Go-Go's scored five Top 40 hits with "We Got The Beat" and "Vacation" being Top 10 hits in 1982. And the album "Beauty And The Beat" would reach No. 1 on the album chart and spend six weeks at the top in the spring of '82, selling over 2 million copies in this country.
As for the other half of the "smitten" duo who wrote "Our Lips Are Sealed," Hall and his band Fun Boy Three would record it as well and take it to No. 7 in 1983 on the British chart.
"Our Lips Are Sealed" helped two bands succeed as a sure-shot, can't-miss hit. The song was every bit 1980s -- right down to the look of individual band members of the Go-Go's.
Good or bad, according to them.
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