"Vacation" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by the Go-Go's | ||||
from the album Vacation | ||||
B-side | "Beatnik Beach" | |||
Released | July 20, 1982 | |||
Recorded | 1982 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:59 | |||
Label | I.R.S. | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Richard Gottehrer | |||
The Go-Go's singles chronology | ||||
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"Vacation" is a 1982 single released by the all-female rock band, the Go-Go's. The song was the first single from the album, Vacation .
The song became one of the Go-Go's highest charting singles, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1982, being the band's second and final US top-10 hit. The song was released on 7" vinyl format, with the surf rock song "Beatnik Beach" as the single's B-side. "Vacation" carries the distinction of being released as the first known cassette single or "cassingle" as trademarked by I.R.S. Records. [1]
Billboard called it a "perfect summer record" saying it is "uptempo, optimistic and the aural companion for lazy days at the beach. [2] Cash Box called it "propulsive power pop." [3]
A previous version of "Vacation" written solely by Kathy Valentine was an EP and later 45 by the earlier band she was in, The Textones. Both the EP and 45 were on Chiswick Records in the United Kingdom.
The video, which was directed by Mick Haggerty and C.D. Taylor, starts by showing the song's title on a photo in a travel brochure. It depicts the band waiting on a pile of luggage at an airport after Belinda Carlisle arrives in a taxi. Gradually it changes to show them performing, then ends with a section in which they appear to be water-skiing in formation, as on the album cover. All the band members smile and mug for the camera in individual closeups. The photo then freezes and zooms out to be shown in another travel brochure on the floor, which an unseen janitor sweeps up, with other trash (most likely from the airport portion of the video).
It was shot in one very long day on a $50,000 budget, large for the time, and the band was coming off a debut album that had reached no. 1. "We still saw videos as an annoying waste of time," recalls Jane Wiedlin. "After seven or eight hours we sent out someone to sneak in booze." Kathy Valentine says they drank "lots of champagne. Lots." Wiedlin says the effects are evident during the closeups of the women at the end: "... if you look at our eyes, we're all so drunk. We didn't even try to make it look like we were really waterskiing." [4]
7-inch and cassette single [5] [6]
The song was later included in the jukebox musical Head over Heels that debuted on Broadway in 2018.
The Go-Go's performed "Vacation", "Our Lips Are Sealed", and "We Got the Beat" during the 2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. [7]
"Vacation" was used in two Klasky-Csupo animated series; Duckman in the episode “In The Nam of the Father”, and Rugrats in the episode “Vacation”. The song was played in The Simpsons season 16 episode "Mobile Homer". The song was also used in the trailer for the 2007 comedy film, Mr. Bean's Holiday .
The song was played during the end credits of the 2019 Marvel Studios movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home . [8]
A parody of the song was sung several times during the Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 6 episode "Casecation".
The song is played over a montage towards the end of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 7 episode 2, The Gang goes to the Jersey Shore.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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The Go-Go's are an American all-female rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belinda Carlisle on lead vocals, Gina Schock on drums, Kathy Valentine on bass, and Jane Wiedlin on rhythm guitar. They are widely considered the most successful all-female rock band of all time.
Beauty and the Beat is the debut album from California new wave band the Go-Go's. Released July 14, 1981 on the I.R.S. Records label, the album reached number one on Billboard's Top LPs & Tape chart in March 1982, bolstered by its two big Hot 100 hit singles: "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "We Got the Beat", released in 1980, but in a different version. After a long and steady climb, Beauty and the Beat reached number one in the album chart dated March 6, 1982, the week before "We Got the Beat" entered the Top Ten of the Hot 100. The album stayed at the top for six consecutive weeks, and ranked second in Billboard's year-end Top 100 of 1982. The album sold in excess of two million copies, and was RIAA-certified double platinum, qualifying it as one of the most successful debut albums of all time. Critically acclaimed, it has been described as one of the "cornerstone albums of American new wave".
Vacation is the second studio album by American rock band the Go-Go's, released on July 20, 1982, by I.R.S. Records. The album reached number eight on the Billboard 200, and has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The title track reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100.
Kathryn Valentine is an American musician who is the bassist for the rock band the Go-Go's. She has maintained a career in music through songwriting, recording, performing and touring as well as additional academic and creative pursuits. Valentine was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October 2021 as a member of The Go-Go's.
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A cassette single (CS), also known by the trademark cassingle, or capitalised as the trademark Cassette Single, is a music single supplied in the form of a Compact Cassette. The cassette single was introduced in 1980.
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