Today’s classic early MTV song of the day is “Vacation” by the Go-Go’s. This single, the title track and first single from the group’s second album, Vacation, was released in July of 1982, the middle of summer, and it peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #6 on the Cash Box Top 100.
“Vacation” was written by Go-Go’s’ Charlotte Caffey, Kathy Valentine, and Jane Wiedlin. Billboard called it a “perfect summer record… uptempo, optimistic and the aural companion for lazy days at the beach.” Cash Box chimed in, calling it “propulsive power pop.” The song is all that, and more.
The song started out a few years prior, as a solo composition by Kathy Valentine when she was a member of a group called the Textones. When she joined the Go-Go’s in 1980, she brought “Vacation” with her. Valentine recalls how Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin helped her rework it into the catchy pop song we all know today:
“It was like a honeymoon. We were infatuated with each other, me with my new band, them with their new band member. Pretty early on, I sat down with Charlotte one night and I showed her ‘Can’t Stop The World’ and ‘Vacation.’ And she loved both of them and thought that they could be Go-Go’s songs. With ‘Vacation,’ she said, ‘I feel that it doesn’t really go to a strong chorus.’ So we sat down that same night and wrote a chorus to it.”
According to Valentine, Jane Wiedlin then pitched in and suggested a different first line:
“Right as we were about to record it, I had this insecurity that it wasn’t strong enough. ‘I’ve thought a lot of things about you,’ that’s probably more me. But Jane, she just threw in ‘Can’t seem to get my mind off of you” off the top of her head. And I think it makes it more universal.”
As a song, “Vacation” is all driving beat and catchy melody, enthusiastically performed by the early ’80s’ premier girl group. The Go-Go’s were (and are) Belinda Carlisle on vocals, Jane Wiedlin on rhythm guitar and background vocals, Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Kathy Valentine on bass, and Gina Schock on drums. They had three top twenty albums (Beauty and the Beat, Vacation, and Talk Show) and five top forty singles: “Our Lips Are Sealed” (#20 in 1981), “We Got the Beat” (#2, 1981), “Vacation” (#8, 1982), “Head Over Heels” (#11, 1984), and “Turn to You” (#32, 1984). The girls carved out a space for themselves in the crowded early MTV era, helped by their appealing videos and effervescent yet punkish personalities.
The group broke up (for the first time) in 1984, due to personality conflicts, creative differences, and some drug addiction issues. Both Belinda Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin had somewhat successful solo careers; we featured Ms. Wiedlin’s “Rush Hour” as a previous classic song of the day and Ms. Carlisle had a handful of hits later in the ’80s, including “Mad About You” (#3 in 1986), “Heaven is a Place on Earth” (#1, 1987), “I Get Weak” (#2, 1988) and “Circle in the Sand” (#7, 1988).
The Go-Go’s made a big mark on the music scene in the 1980s. They were nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy in 1982 (they lost to Sheena Easton, of all people) and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. The ladies got back together on numerous occasions over the years but claim to have finally disbanded, with their final show being in San Diego on March 31, 2022. Individually, however, they’re still going strong and basking in the glow of renewed, continuing, and deserved popularity.
