Everything about Belinda Carlisle totally explained
Belinda Carlisle (born on
August 17,
1958 in
Hollywood, California) is the lead
vocalist and a founding member of the
all-female New Wave band
The Go-Go's as well as a successful solo artist. She was recently a judge on the
MTV reality show Rock the Cradle.
Early Career and The Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was a brief stint as drummer for the
punk band
The Germs under the name
Dottie Danger, although illness prevented her from ever performing with them live. Soon after leaving this band she founded the the Go-Go's (originally named The Misfits) with friend and fellow music novice
Jane Wiedlin. With bassist-turned-guitarist
Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist
Kathy Valentine, and drummer
Gina Schock, the Go-Go's became one of the most successful American bands of the early 80's, helping to usher
new wave music into popular American radio and becoming the first all-female band in rock history to achieve a #1 album, who also wrote their own music and played their own instruments. The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums (including
Vacation, which went gold thanks to the title track). "Head over Heels," from the album
Talk Show, made it to #11, but they never repeated the success of their multi-platinum debut,
Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "
We Got the Beat" and "
Our Lips Are Sealed".
The antics of the Go-Go's in the early- to mid-1980s contrasted with their public image. Since then, the group's notoriety from that time period had become something of a legend, involving drugs and sex. Years later, in a 2007 interview with
PlanetOut, Carlisle said that the band had female
groupies and said, "Well, without going into too much detail ... I think all of us in the band, we've all had ... we've all seen the experience you're probably wondering about. And, yeah, like I said, without going into too much detail, we've all been there and done that."
Solo career
Belinda
The Go-Go's broke up in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career (although she continued to work with fellow Go-Go
Charlotte Caffey). Carlisle's first album,
Belinda, was released on
I.R.S. Records in 1986. Her #3 summer hit "
Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" and by a cover version of "
Band of Gold". All three songs were included on the album.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams," the opener in the movie
Mannequin, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the
Whoopi Goldberg movie
Burglar.
Heaven on Earth
Carlisle changed her hairstyle significantly for her second solo album, giving up her California Girl blonde bob for a long auburn do for 1987's
Heaven on Earth. The musical style eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop and was released in the
United States through
MCA and in the
United Kingdom through
Virgin. The album became a top five bestseller in the UK and Australia and was nominated for an
Grammy Award. The album's producer,
Rick Nowels, previously worked with
Stevie Nicks and would later collaborate with
Madonna.
The first release from
Heaven on Earth was "
Heaven Is a Place on Earth" which topped the single charts not only in the U.S. but also in the UK and Australia (the dance mix of the song also topped the dance chart). The radio-ready song was further propelled by a video directed by Academy Award-winning American actress
Diane Keaton. The second release from
Heaven on Earth was the U.S. #2 and UK Top 10 smash "I Get Weak," written by
Diane Warren; it was accompanied by another Keaton-directed video. The third single and video from the album was "Circle in the Sand," another top-20 hit in the U.S., the UK and Germany too. "World Without You" was another British hit, followed by 1988's low-charting ballad "Love Never Dies" in the UK. In the U.S., the fourth single "I Feel Free," a cover of the
Cream classic, missed the Top 40.
Runaway Horses
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of
Heaven on Earth was
Runaway Horses on
October 23 1989. The album again hit the top five in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK, but failed to reach similar success in the U.S. The first release, "Leave a Light On" peaked at #11 in the U.S. and became another top five smash in the UK and Australia. The song features a slide guitar solo by
George Harrison (see
Greatest Hits). The second U.S. single, "
Summer Rain" reached #30 in Spring 1990. The song, which Carlisle noted was the most difficult song she'd ever sung up to that point, peaked successfully at #6 in Australia where it has maintained popularity, and the tune saw a cover version in 2004 by the Australian group
Slinkee Minx. Whereas in the U.S., Carlisle's success was decreasing, her popularity remained big in Europe and Australia. In 1990, further singles from the
Runaway Horses album were successful as well, the summer mood influenced "
La Luna", a top 20 hit in Germany and Australia, covered by German band Commercial Club Crew, German singer Maroma and Croatian band Magnetic, and the powerful rock hymn "
(We Want) the Same Thing", another top 10 hit in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their greatest hits album
Go Go's Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk". A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights organization. Later in the year, Carlisle joined with
The Smithereens lead singer Pat Dinizio on his group's ballad "Blue Period."
Live Your Life Be Free
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album,
Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek video inspired by the B-movie
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track "Live Your Life Be Free" merged 1960s influences with producer Rick Nowel's trademark bombast, and featured a video that emphasized colorful imagery, fashion, and Carlisle's photogenic face. Subsequent releases, "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" were also hits outside the U.S. Although
Live your life be free flopped in the U.S., it was a success in Europe (top 10 in the UK), while the title track was a Top 20 hit single in the UK and Australia.
The Best of Belinda Vol.1
Carlisle broke her contract with MCA, her U.S. record company, in 1992. Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 Best of CD,
The Best of Belinda Vol.1, reached #1 and was certified double platinum in both territories. The greatest hits album included all the hits taken from
Heaven on Earth,
Runaway Horses and
Live Your Life Be Free, only omitting the ballad "Love Never Dies", and the three I.R.S. singles from her first album, namely "Mad About You", "I Feel the Magic" and "Band of Gold"; also no soundtrack song features on the collection.
Real
Carlisle's fifth solo album,
Real, was released 1993 on the Virgin label in the U.S. and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished
pop music formula. Gone was her glamorous image and picture-perfect pop. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with very little make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the disc, collaborating heavily with friend and former Go-Go's member Charlotte Caffey. The album reached #9 in the UK and its first single "Big Scary Animal" reached a respectable #12 placing in the UK. The second single from
Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the top 30 in the UK.
At this time, Carlisle also recorded "One by One" on the
soundtrack of the 1993 movie
The Harvest.
After the
Northridge Earthquake in 1994, Carlisle and her family moved to Europe. The Go-Go's reunited again later that year to support the retrospective double-CD
Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's which included three new songs, however the band broke up after the promotional tour. Carlisle has since lived in France and England.
A Woman and a Man
Carlisle returned to the recording studio and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996, she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album,
A Woman and a Man, on the
Chrysalis Records label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe and included several hits. The leadoff single "In Too Deep" returned Carlisle to the UK top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching #6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by
Roxette's
Per Gessle, peaked at #8. The album spawned two more UK hits, "Love in the Key of C" and "California". The album reached at number #12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of
A Woman and A Man's UK success, the album was released in the U.S. during the summer of 1997 on the
Ark21 label. Despite the recent successful comeback in Europe and the promotional appearances Carlisle made on American television and radio, the album didn't enjoy similar success in North America.
In preparation for this album, Belinda recorded a demo of a song called "Falling into You", which was subsequently (and to Carlisle's surprise) rejected by her then record company, Chrysalis. Shortly afterwards this song was recorded by
Celine Dion as the title track for one of the biggest CD's for Dion's career. Also around this time Belinda had her heart set on recording a song called "Torn", for this album, but the song had already been picked up by
Natalie Imbruglia.
In 1996, Carlisle recorded "I Wouldn't Be Here (If I Didn't Love You)" for the
Two if by Sea official movie soundtrack. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" from Disney's
Hercules as part of that movie's standard distribution in Europe and was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany. Neither of these tracks have been released on compilation albums.
Greatest Hits
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label. Carlisle recorded three new tracks for the album, including the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc of her
A Place on Earth greatest hits album contained
remixes of some of her hits. Some of the remixes were done by
William Orbit, who also worked with
Madonna on her
1998 Ray of Light album. The album was certified gold in the UK.
Voila
In 2007, the singer released her seventh album
Voilà, which was her first solo studio work of full album length in over ten years. The album was produced by
John Reynolds. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and
chanson standards, including covers of
Françoise Hardy and
Édith Piaf classics.
Voilà was released via
Rykodisc in the U.K. on
5 February 2007 and in the U.S. the following day. Carlisle was originally approached to make another 'pop' album, but she declined immediately in favour of recording this collection of songs, the style of which, she'd 'absolutely fallen in love with', since moving to France in the early 90's.
Collaborations
During her solo career, Carlisle has had the opportunity to work with numerous prominent musicians from the 1960s.
Michelle Phillips of
The Mamas and The Papas, Chyna Phillips and Carnie Wilson (pre-
Wilson Phillips) did backup singing for
Heaven on Earth;
Brian Wilson of
The Beach Boys arranged and sang back-up on "California" from
A Woman and A Man. She performed live with her idols
the Beach Boys, and performed with
Freda Payne when Carlisle covered Payne's classic hit "
Band of Gold." As mentioned above, ex-
Beatle George Harrison contributed guitar work to the single "Leave a Light On", as well as the song "Deep Deep Ocean", both tracks found on the
Runaway Horses album. Carlisle performed backing vocals on
Then Jerico's album
Big Area on the track "What Does it Take?", She also performed back vocals on The Smithereens album
11 for the track "Blue Period" and for the
Don Henley recording of "She's on the Zoom" from the
Vision Quest soundtrack.
She also worked with noted musicians of her own generation, such as
Duran Duran's
Andy Taylor on her debut solo album
Belinda (Taylor appears in her "Mad About You" video clip);
Thomas Dolby played the keyboards in some
Heaven on Earth tracks; and
Bryan Adams did backup vocals in "Whatever It Takes" from the
Runaway Horses album. Another notable collaboration was the one with the ambient mastermind and legend
Brian Eno who played the keyboards in her latest release
Voila.
Personal life
A former high school
cheerleader, Carlisle is also the eldest of seven children. In 1986 Carlisle married
Morgan Mason, son of the
British actor James Mason and former Deputy
United States Chief of Protocol. Morgan made appearances in Carlisle's videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have a son, James Duke Mason, (born
April 27,
1992).
She has been reported as being "deeply into
Buddhist chanting", though precisely what form is unclear. In an interview printed on
March 7,
2007, the singer stated that "I was wondering about happiness and started reading a lot of books by the
Dalai Lama, and slowly embraced Buddhism" (published by Newindpress,
India). On
Sydney Morning Herald: ""I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I'm very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 a real passage in time for me".
She appeared nude for the cover feature of the August 2001
Playboy, around the time of a Go-Go's reunion tour and album.
(External Link
) She was 42 years of age when the photos were taken.
2006–2008 appearances
Carlisle continued her string of TV appearances in 2006, having signed to appear on the
Simon Cowell-produced
Celebrity Duets, a
FOX network reality competition pairing celebrities not famous for singing (like
Lucy Lawless and
Cheech Marin) with actual singers like Carlisle,
Michael Bolton,
Jon Secada and
Macy Gray. Carlisle sang "Heaven is a Place on Earth" and "I Get Weak" with
Lea Thompson in the
September 7 episode.
Carlisle also performed on the opening night of Manchester Gay Pride 2007. Carlisle performed a set with other 1980's acts at Retro Fest on 1st September 2007 at
Culzean Castle in
Ayrshire,
Scotland. Carlisle rang in 2008 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in an all-French song Parisian themed New Year's concert with
Rufus Wainwright sharing the bill. On April 3rd, 2008, she appeared for the first time as a judge on the
MTV reality show Rock the Cradle, a show about the children of famous musicians who also want to be successful in the music industry. Carlisle has endorsed
Hillary Clinton for
President of the United States in the 2008 election.
Discography
Albums
Top ten singles
Further Information
Get more info on 'Belinda Carlisle'.
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