Vacation

by

Go-Go's

Album: Vacation      Released: 1982

US Chart: 8     

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The Go-Go's have always written their own songs, and this was composed by their 3 primary songwriters: Kathy Valentine, Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin. Says Wiedlin: "'Vacation' was Kathy's song, and Kathy was the last Go-Go to join. She joined at the beginning of '81 and she brought that song with her from her band, The Textones. We really loved the song, but it didn't really have a chorus. So Charlotte and I ended up working with Kathy a little bit more on the song, and sort of Go-Go-fying it, basically adding the chorus. But that storyline was one about having a summer romance, thinking that it was all just for fun and games, and then later realizing that you actually love."

The iconic video shows The Go-Go's water skiing, although it's pretty obvious that the girls themselves are not in the water. They look a little spaced-out at times in the video, and Wiedlin told us why: "Well, we were at the A&M sound stage, and it was a big budget video, because of course by that time we were really popular, because it was our second album, and our first album had sold like, I don't know, over 2 million copies or something. So we had a lot of money to do the video, which was the first time for us, because the other videos we just spent, like $5,000 on or something. And it was fun, but it was a way of working that we weren't accustomed to. And I remember it being a really long day, like a 14-hour day, and about 8 hours into it we all were getting really bored and restless, so we started drinking. But by the time they actually shot the scene where we're on the water skis, skiing one-handed and waving and stuff, we were all really looped. It's so funny, if you look at us, look in our eyes in those parts, we're all like cross-eyed drunk.

Go-Go's always made fun of everything. So of course, we were making fun of the whole thing all along. And we were very resistant to following orders, or to acting, because we weren't actors. But yeah, even thought we had become America's sweethearts, we were still basically punk rockers at heart." (Thanks to Jane for speaking with us about this song. In her full Songfacts interview, Jane talks about why the Go-Go's are like Twinkies. Her website is www.janewiedlin.com.)

TV shows that have used this song include The Simpsons, Rugrats, Duckman and Scrubs. It was also used in the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 and performed by Kelly Clarkson in the 2003 movie From Justin To Kelly.

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Comments:

The perfect summer song.
- Theresa, Murfreesboro, TN

"The song itself is king." Thank God for an engineer who listens!
- Robert, Houston, TX

When I was attending audio engineering school in the summer of 1999, this song was cited as an example of the idea that while audio quality is important, the song itself is king. When songs are in production, it is common for performers and producers to take home rough mixes of songs, in those days it was on cassette. These mixes were usually done very quickly. Reportedly in the case of this song, everyone loved one particular rough mix, but for some reason they found it impossible to get the same mix again, so the song as it appears on the single is mastered from a cassette rough mix. It was a hit anyway, despite the sonic shortcomings.
- John, North Hollywood, CA

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