On January 15, 2020, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame announced their 2020 inductees, which included a semi-diverse list of artists, including Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, The Doobie Brothers, T. Rex (long overdue), The Notorious B.I.G. and the only woman to be inducted in the 2020 class, Whitney Houston.
While it was hoped that Pat Benatar and Chaka Khan (as half of Rufus and Chaka Khan) would also be inducted this year, it’s not surprising they weren’t. At the very least, the Dave Matthews Band didn’t get in. How the fuck did they get nominated in the first place? Christ. But I digress.
A couple of days before the Rock Hall inductees were announced, the Academy Award nominees were announced. Only one woman of color was nominated for a major acting award and no female directors (and there were many in 2019) were nominated.
Here on the blog, I know I’ve often mentioned the lack of women in the Rock Hall, and I know I’m not the only one who feels that way. And, with the double whammy of the Oscar nods and the Rock Hall inductees this week, I’m hopeful that by 2021, we’ll see a lot more women nominated everywhere.
On the day the Rock Hall inductees were announced, I read an article online about 10 female artists who should be in the Rock Hall (and five who might be next). At the top of the list, Carole King. Abso-fucking-lutely. One of the greatest songwriters of all-time, her 1971 TAPESTRY album was so huge, it spent 15 weeks atop the BILLBOARD album chart, won four Grammy Awards, has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, and was the No. 2 album of the year in the U.S. for both 1971 and 1972, and the No. 22 album for 1973. Pretty fucking amazing.
Other women on the list I would certainly vote for included Björk, Kate Bush, Dolly Parton and The Go-Go’s. Courtney Love and her band, Hole, were on the list as well, and as was written in the article, “this one should be a no-brainer.” WTF?! She is only on the list because she was married to Kurt Cobain. She did a decent acting job in a couple movies in the late 90s (including 1998’s MAN ON THE MOON), and the band had one okay song, but really? A “no-brainer?” How about just NO!!! I would much rather have chosen Mariah Carey and Sheryl Crow (both on the list) over Courtney Love, and those are artists I am not really a fan of. And nowhere (again) on the list was Cyndi Lauper.
Future Rock Hall inductees (yes, please!) Cyndi Lauper and Dolly Parton.
I’ve made my case for Cyndi to be in the Rock Hall (or at least nominated, fer fuck’s sake) many times here on the blog, and you can go back and read about my reasons for why she should have been inducted years ago, so if you see #Cyndi2021 trending anywhere this year, that’s prolly why.
Even Steve Miller (who has had his own issues with the Rock Hall) called them out when he was inducted in 2016, and said, “keep expanding your vision, to be more inclusive of women.” That’s goddamned right.
The Go-Go’s are definitely worthy of being in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The Los Angeles New Wave / Punk Rockers, formed in 1978 and consisting of singer Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin on rhythm guitar, Kathy Valentine on bass guitar, Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, and drummer Gina Schock, were the first all-female group to reach No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s album chart with their 1981 album, BEAUTY AND THE BEAT.
One of two covers used for BEAUTY AND THE BEAT.
The album spent six weeks on top in March and April 1982, sold over two million copies in the U.S. alone, was the No. 2 album in America for 1982, and was one of the biggest debut albums of all-time. To date, The Go-Go’s remain as the only all-female band to both write their own songs and play their own instruments on an album that reached No. 1 on the BILLBOARD album chart. Still pretty impressive nearly 40 years later.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAT was released in early July 1981 on I.R.S. Records, and took awhile for it to catch on. The first single released from the album, “Our Lips Are Sealed,” also took awhile to catch on, but it ultimately reached No. 20 on the BILLBOARD Hot 100, and also took its time leaving the survey, spending its 30th and final week on the Hot 100 in late March 1982. It was on the chart so long, it ranked at No. 63 for all of 1982, beating out about 20 Top 10 hits, including their own single, “Vacation” (the No. 8 title track from their 1982 album).
The second single chosen from BEAUTY AND THE BEAT was “We Got The Beat,” released this week in January 1982. Written by Charlotte Caffey, this song made its original 1980 appearance on Stiff Records, and in the U.K., was released as a single in July 1981. It was so popular in the dance clubs, the import got so much play, it even reached No. 35 on BILLBOARD’s Dance chart in 1981.
The cover art for the original Stiff Records single version of “We Got The Beat.”
The re-recorded version you hear on BEAUTY AND THE BEAT did not take long to debut on the BILLBOARD Hot 100. Just a couple weeks after its release, it debuted at No. 79 in late January 1982, and just two weeks later, debuted inside the Top 40 at No. 31. By mid-March, the catchy two-and-a-half-minute New Wave / Dance classic had beat its way to the Top 10.
For three weeks in April 1982, “We Got The Beat” stayed at No. 2 on the Hot 100, held off by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts’ monster hit, “I Love Rock N’ Roll,” and stayed on the chart for 19 weeks, exiting in early June 1982, nearly a full year after the release of BEAUTY AND THE BEAT. “We Got The Beat” also reached No. 3 in Canada, No. 29 in Austria and No. 7 on BILLBOARD’s Mainstream Rock chart.
NERDY CHART FACT: Both “We Got The Beat” and the namesake of the The Go-Go’s originated from a song they covered, “Going To A Go-Go,” a 1965 hit by The Miracles, co-written, co-produced and sung by the legendary Smokey Robinson. The week after “We Got The Beat” left the BILLBOARD Hot 100, a live version of “Going To A Go-Go” by The Rolling Stones debuted on the chart. So, in a way, the Go-Go’s kept beating on until “Vacation” immediately followed The Stones into the Top 40 in July 1982.
The Go-Go’s broke up in 1985, after their third album, 1984’s TALKSHOW, Belinda Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin had successful solo careers, got back together briefly in 1990 and 1994, and have been together for over 20 years, and released their fourth album, the wonderful GOD BLESS THE GO-GO’s, in 2001. In the summer of 2018, a musical about the band, HEAD OVER HEELS, premiered in New York.
One of the posters for the HEAD OVER HEELS musical.
“We Got The Beat” was named as one of “The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock And Roll,” a list that includes songs by the also-yet-to-be-nominated/inducted Siouxsie And The Banshees, Salt-N-Pepa, The B-52’s and the aforementioned Cyndi Lauper.
Today (January 18, 2020) was the fourth annual Women’s March, which started worldwide the day after Donald Trump was sworn in as President Gas. This year’s protest march for women’s rights and more took place in many cities in the U.S., including an event in Portland, Maine.
From the 2020 Women’s March in Philadelphia, January 18, 2020.
A hope I have for 2020 and beyond is that more women everywhere are recognized for the incredible work they do, not just in entertainment, and are treated (at least) as well and as fairly as their male counterparts. Nearly 40 years ago, five young women from L.A. shouted, “Yeah! We Got The Beat!”, and it was an inspiration to women everywhere. And women still have the beat and then some. It’s time for men everywhere to take notice and start dancing to that beat. It’s long overdue…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f55KlPe81Yw
Nearly 20 years after the 1984 release of “It’s My Life,” Gwen Stefani and No Doubt’s updated and faithful cover of “It’s My Life” (also supported by a greatest hits collection) fared even better than the Talk Talk original.
Even though it is my birthday, it doesn’t mean I’m exempt from sharing with you my “song of the day.”
FOREVER YOUNG 