Belinda Carlisle - Early Career and The Go-Gos

Early Career and The Go-Gos

Carlisle's first venture into music was a brief stint as drummer for the punk band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. Around this time Carlisle did some back-up singing for the Black Randy and the Metrosquad. Soon after leaving The Germs, she co-founded the Go-Gos (originally named the Misfits), with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olaverria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olaverria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. The Go-Go's became one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher New Wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first all-female band who wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Gos recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982 Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11, but they never repeated the success of their 1981 multi-platinum debut, Beauty and the Beat.

In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and performed backing vocals for the Don Henley recording of "She's on the Zoom" from the Vision Quest soundtrack.