Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey and Gina Schock – the California quartet known as the Go-Go’s – got their start in the Los Angeles punk underground in the late ‘70s, but quickly transcended their raw roots to become an all-American pop sensation, scoring massive hits like “We’ve Got the Beat” and “Our Lips Are Sealed.” On the band’s website, they proclaim themselves “the most successful all-female rock band of all time,” a boast that’s depressingly easy to quantify, given the paucity of all-female bands, and not at all hyperbolic: The band’s debut Beauty and the Beat hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1981 and stayed there for six weeks – a feat no all-lady band had accomplished before. Currently in the midst of a farewell tour which hits Comerica Theatre August 25th, the Go-Go’s and their chiming New Wave sound influenced a generation of rockers after them, both male – Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys are vocal fans – and female, as illustrated by this Go-Go’s girl-rocker family tree.
– Jason P. Woodbury
