The Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed

“Our Lips Are Sealed” is a song co-written by Jane Wiedlin, guitarist of the Go-Go’s, and Terry Hall, singer of the Specials and Fun Boy Three.

Album: Beauty and the Beat.
Released: June 12, 1981.
Songwriters: Jane Wiedlin, Terry Hall.
Producers: Richard Gottehrer, Rob Freeman.

It was first recorded by the Go-Go’s as the opening track on their album Beauty and the Beat (1981) and was their debut American single in June 1981. The single eventually reached the top 5 in Australia and Canada, and the top 20 in the United States. Although originally written and performed with three verses,[2] an abbreviated version of the song appears on Beauty and the Beat. Although most of the song’s lead vocals are performed by usual lead singer Belinda Carlisle, co-writer Wiedlin sings the bridge.

In 1983, Hall’s band, Fun Boy Three, released their version of “Our Lips Are Sealed”. Issued as a single, the track became a top ten hit in the United Kingdom, besting the recording by the Go-Go’s which only made it to No. 47 in the UK.

The official music video for the song features sequences of the band members in carefree tableaux (riding around in a convertible, stopping at a lingerie shop, and splashing around in a fountain) interspersed with footage of the band playing a club booking.

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Jane Wiedlin says the band was initially unenthusiastic about doing the video when Miles Copeland, president of their label, I.R.S. Records, told them they would be doing it. “We were totally bratty,” she recalls. The video was financed with unused funds from The Police’s video budget.

The concept was for the band to drive around and be followed by a camera. Belinda Carlisle would sing, and the other members would do cute things. They wanted an older-style convertible and found a 1960 Buick at Rent-a-Wreck. It was, says Wiedlin, the band’s idea to end the video by jumping into the Electric Fountain on the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards in Beverly Hills. “I thought, at any minute the cops are gonna come. This is gonna be so cool.”

Wiedlin looks back on the video experience fondly. “I have horrible ’80s poodle hair in [it]”, she recalled in a 2011 history of MTV. “But there’s a simplicity and innocence to the video that appeals to me.”[4] In one sequence, Belinda Carlisle can be seen trying to hide; she later admitted this was deliberate, as she thought the whole idea of a music video was ridiculous and unlikely to catch on.

Info from Wikipedia

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