The Go-Go's - VH1 Behind the Music: Go-Go's Collection

"America's sweethearts," Rolling Stone once dubbed the Go-Go's, and it was certainly as true as it could've been in any post-'50s milieu. The surf-tinged New Wavers sold more than 2 million copies of their 1981 debut, Beauty and the Beat, while carrying on backstage in the grand manner of rock stars with much "dirtier" images. Thus the Behind the Music episode that occasions this 17-cut overview. Highlights of the L.A. quintet's three albums fill the disc, though "Forget That Day," the Talk Show track that precipitated jill-of-all-trades Jane Wiedlin's departure from the group, is intriguingly absent. Whether double-edgedly celebrating romance and the ties of band life (the ringing "Our Lips Are Sealed"), wickedly satirizing post-teen female concerns ("Girl of 100 Lists"), or affectionately saluting their pop-culture forebears ("Beatnik Beach"), the Go-Go's were one of the era's most pounding and poignant pop outfits. This CD recalls them as they deserve to be remembered: lovingly. --Rickey Wright Amazon.com

Go-Go's

This CD is 55 minutes and 12 seconds long and their compilation album. It was released in May 23, 2000. This is about eleven minutes longer then their Greatest CD. The Greates has fourteen songs on it and this one has seven songs on it. Like I wrote about Greatest it is a collection of their first 3 albums: Beauty and the Beat, Vacation, and Talk Show. November 29, 2008

Incredible 24-Bit Digital Remastering From The Original Master Tapes!

I'm surprised that a couple reviews here mention that this Go-Go's 'Collection' suffers from either poor remastering or so-so remastering. In fact, part of the reason that I've held off on buying this package was due to the few reviews here that cited the remastering problem. I've had my eye on this release for a number of years now but did not bother with it because I usually do not buy any newer release with poor sound quality. I'm very picky when it comes to audio quality, so I figured that I would just wait for a new Go-Go's collection to hit the market.

In any case, I decided to a do a search and find the mastering engineer for this release. It was no other than renowned mastering engineer, Erick Labson! Erick is a professional mastering engineer under the Universal division, remastering numerous '20th Century Masters - Millennium Collection' and 'Gold' releases over the years in addition to various hits collections for the company's catalogue of artists. Since I own a variety of these releases and have yet to be disappointed in Labson's mastering I decided to give this collection a chance.

The results? This 2000 VH-1/I.R.S./Capitol/A&M release is simply one of the best-sounding remasters in my massive music collection. I'm very, very picky about sound quality, and I don't hear any tape hissing at all, as one reviewer pointed out. The drums are crisp and punchy. The guitars are loud and clear. The production is warm and clean. The sound quality is absolutely stunning, considering the age of most of these recordings. We're talking about songs released from 1981 to 1984!

The compilation is "24-Bit Re-Mastered from The Original Masters", as stated on the back sleeve, by Erick Labson at Universal Mastering Studios-West, North Hollywood, CA. Compared to a number of other remastered releases in my own personal collection 'Behind The Music' is among my best-sounding releases. Pop the disc in and listen to the opening punchy drums of "We Got The Beat", and you'll hear what I mean from the start! The punch and warmth continues with "Our Lips Are Sealed". Other hits, such as "Vacation" and "Head Over Heels", have never sounded better!

As for the tracklisting, a few people have mentioned the exclusion of a handful of important tracks. Notably missing are singles "He's So Strange" (from 1982's Vacation), "Cool Jerk" (from 1990's Greatest) and "The Whole World Lost It's Head", the band's first and only U.K. Top 40 hit (from Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's in 1994). Considering the disc clocks in at roughly 55 minutes and covers only the band's first 3 albums, these tracks could have been added!

Despite the tracklisting flaws, I still have to recommend this compilation for the brilliant audio quality. August 30, 2008

Go-Go's Fever

The name Go-Go's sum up the starting of everything for me in life, Those gals were the very first musical group for me to hear and love and the first concert I went to with my friend in High School. The concert was such a great time in my life with everyone dancing on the lawn, screaming to see who was going to catch Ginas drum sticks, Though I must say my friend and I were very close at catching one. The songs on this cd has the hits from We Got The Beat, Our Lips Are Sealed, Lust to Love, Head Over Heels , Yes and No and a top favorite of mine Mercenary. All of my favorites from the band who started it all. If you do have any info of the group please let me know. Thank you. June 5, 2008

Good listen

Lots of good songs on this one. They weren't the best musicians/songwriters in the world, but they had a lot of gumption, and you can tell they enjoyed what they did. I think they kept open a lot of doors opened by Benatar and Joplin, and let girls know that it COULD be done with an all-girl band, and pretty darn well, at that. September 2, 2007

A Blast

The Go-Gos were often made sport of.. a bunch of pop singing chicks. But when you compare the voices and consider the fact that they played their own instruments... compared to today's pop stars .. they would be artists. July 29, 2007

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