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