Belinda Carlisle’s latest covers album, Once Upon a Time in California, is her first English language album in 29 years.
She’s previously expressed love for her state of origin through song (see: 1997’s “California”), but this one collates new recordings of songs from the ‘70s that shaped her musical identity.
The album process began in 2017, with Carlisle estimating that she culled from “probably about 100 songs” down to the final ten. “Just because I liked the song didn’t mean it was gonna work. So we would demo everything and see if we could keep the integrity of the song, but make it like a song that I would do – the sound that I have… It was a good eight years in the making.”
Her Once Upon a Time in California project was interrupted not only by the global pandemic but also a chance meeting with long-time collaborator Diane Warren (who wrote “I Get Weak” and “World Without You” for Carlisle’s second solo album, 1987’s Heaven on Earth, for example), which resulted in the pair’s collaborative five-track Kismet EP (2023).
So how did Carlisle typically consume music as a child? “My mom, she liked show tunes – Rodgers and Hammerstein and big band music – and didn’t like the Beatles when they came out – didn’t like any of that pop music,” she tells us over Zoom. “And I loved it. So my transistor radio introduced me to that whole world. And California radio was a big part of the culture at the time.
“And I would go to my best friend’s house – his mother was working – and after school we’d just go lay in front of the speakers and sing along to every single song that was on the radio. And then during summer it was from 8am to 6pm – until I had to go home. So that was my life. And it was like music provided an escape for me, into my fantasy world of wanting to be a singer one day.”
Carlisle says The Association’s “Never My Love” reminds her of “growing up in California.” A Once Upon a Time in California highlight, Carlisle’s take on this song commences with some glorious vocal harmonies – transportive and airy, like a feather caught in a slipstream. “I always loved the song and I wanted to put more of a twist on it,” she explains of the vocalisation choices. “So I thought, ‘Well, maybe let’s do some Beach Boys harmonies and layer vocals.’ So that’s what we did and it totally worked with the song.”
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There’s also some outstanding layered vocals in Carlisle’s version of Harry Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talking”. “That was fun, super-fun,” Carlisle enthuses. “I think one of my strengths is coming up with background vocal parts, ‘cause I love doing it so much. And I’m not trained, so I can go way out there and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
“Because the original has that ethereal, very California feel, I wanted to just add that same sort of vocal sound that was such a big part of my childhood. So, yeah, we just went for it, going for that kind of Roy Orbison, Beach Boys, very breezy – I dunno, we had the idea of doing it in the studio and started playing with the layering. It just totally worked, you know, and I think the original is, of course, incredible.
“There’s two Harry Nilsson songs on the album: this one [‘Everybody’s Talking’] and ‘One’. And I knew him, actually, in his later years in California. So I think he’d be proud. I think he’d be happy with it.”
Some of the other classic songs Carlisle covers include Dionne Warwick’s “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle”, and Albert Hammond’s “The Air That I Breathe”.
If you were amongst the tens of millions of viewers who tuned in to watch Coachella’s livestream from the comfort of your couch earlier this year, you hopefully clocked Carlisle’s trailblazing band The Go-Go’s owning the stage. Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong even made a surprise guest appearance during their set, which was – unquestionably – one of Coachella 2025’s top moments.
While discussing how chuffed Armstrong looked to be sharing their stage, Carlisle points out, “He’s an old friend of the band, actually. He co-wrote one of our singles, a song called ‘Unforgiven’ off of God Bless the Go-Go’s [the band’s fourth and final studio album, released in 2001]. The Go-Go’s did a Japanese tour with Green Day and so we’re all friends.
“It’s sort of a [Coachella] tradition to invite somebody to come on stage with you and Green Day was playing the following night, so we thought, ‘Billie Joe – perfect!’ I thought it was gonna be ‘Unforgiven’ – the song he co-wrote – but he wanted to do ‘Head Over Heels’. He has a covers band [The Coverups] and he does ‘Head Over Heels’, so it worked perfectly. And it was the most incredible experience, I have to say – it was fabulous.
“But it was also boiling, boiling hot and our slot was in the heat of the day. There’s this sun hitting the stage – it was so hot! – and I go barefoot; it was like dancing on a stove! And at the end of the show, I had blisters all on the bottoms of my feet from the stage being so hot [laughs]. It was intense, but it was so much fun. And seeing – God! The audience, the demographic, was all over the place. It was young kids and people our age, and everybody knew the music. We were really concerned that nobody was gonna show up – ‘cause, you know, ‘Go-Go’s, old news,’ whatever – but they showed up for us. And it was 20,000 people the first weekend and, I think, 30 or 40 [thousand] the second weekend. So it was great.”
The Go-Go’s closed their Coachella set with a genius mash-up, honouring rising star Chappell Roan by interpolating a snippet of “Hot to Go” within their own smash hit, 1981’s “We Got the Beat”. “Yeah, uh-huh, that was fun,” Carlisle acknowledges. “That was Jane [Wiedlin, Go-Go’s co-founder, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist]‘s idea, but it worked and the audience loved it.”
The band played a packed Coachella warm-up show at the Roxy, which was the first time the five founding Go-Go’s members performed a public show together in more than seven years. Drummer Gina Schock wasn’t able to participate in their last reunion tour in 2021/22 (she was recovering from thumb surgery), so Blondie’s drummer Clem Burke stood in. Sadly, Burke passed three days before the all-girl group’s warm-up show at the Roxy, which they in turn dedicated to his memory.
The Go-Go’s were the queens of the LA punk scene, refusing to be alienated or ignored by bro bands that typified the ‘80s. When their sensational debut album, Beauty and the Beat, topped the Billboard 200 chart in March 1982 (for six consecutive weeks, no less), The Go-Go’s made history as the first all-female group – who wrote and performed their own songs – to score a number one album in the US. In 2021, the group was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.
Beauty and the Beat opened with The Go-Go’s smash hit “Our Lips Are Sealed”, which peaked at No. 2 on the Australian charts. When told this writer distinctly remembers mistakenly belting out this song’s chorus as “Alex the seal,” Carlisle chuckles. “Did ya? Well, I remember Gina and I went into a radio station – we were doing promo, the first time The Go-Go’s came to Australia – and the DJ called it ‘Alex the Seal’ and I went, ‘What?’ And so that became kind of a joke. But, yeah! That was very funny. It was a real thing, apparently.”
It was such a ‘thing’, in fact, that Spiderbait recorded their own version of The Go-Go’s signature song in 1996, titled “Alex the Seal” – releasing it as a B-side. “Oh, they did?” Carlisle smiles. “That’s so funny.”
For her debut solo album, 1986’s Belinda, Carlisle recorded a cover of “Stuff and Nonsense” by Split Enz. So how did this legendary New Zealand band land on her radar? “Oh, I have a good Split Enz story – a really good Split Enz story,” she beams. “But I was a huge fan. It was in 1977, they came to LA and I saw them – with the brothers [Neil and Tim Finn] – at the Roxy. It was like theatre; it was the most amazing thing I’d seen.
“And then that same weekend, I had a party. I was living at this infamous flophouse called Disgraceland with a bunch of girls. So we had a party – girls only, no boyfriends were allowed. You wore see-through negligees, stilettos, and [ate] fattening foods. We were all drinking and there was music going. Then there was a knock at the door and there was Neil Finn and some of the guys from Split Enz! They could not believe that they had just walked into this jackpot of, like, 40 girls in see-through negligees,” she recalls, laughing. “And we go, ‘Come on in!’
“So they just came in and they were the only guys that were allowed. And when I ran into Neil, like, 10 or 15 years later, he still talks about that party that they just happened to walk into with all these girls – they couldn’t believe it.
“I think they were pretty awkward, but it was really, really funny. So, yeah! But I love that song [‘Stuff and Nonsense’]. I mean, on my Spotify list I have ‘History Never Repeats’ and ‘I Hope I Never’.” Carlisle sings a bit of the latter’s exquisite chorus melody, before gushing, “I love that song. It’s such a good song. So, yeah! I’m a big fan.”
Carlisle’s Lips Unsealed: A Memoir was published in 2010. Throughout this unflinching autobiography, she delves into some of the issues that plagued her as The Go-Go’s found international superstardom – almost from the get-go – and beyond. As well as substance abuse and eating disorders, Carlisle also struggled with imposter syndrome for many years.
“That was a big part of my career, up until probably, like, 20 years ago – before I got sober,” she reflects. “And I did a lot of internal work and a lot of therapy.
“I dunno, I just didn’t feel like I was a singer and really deserved that success – especially in the beginning – because I had seen all my friends and people struggle for years, and The Go-Go’s happened in three years – from zero to a hundred. So there’s a lot of guilt with that and it’s like, ‘I dunno if I deserve this.’ But I remember being on tour during Runaway Horses [her third solo studio album, released in 1989] and I looked out my dressing room window at the arena, and there were thousands of people in the queue. And I thought, ‘Oh my God, they’re coming to see me!’
“When I would be on stage, I couldn’t even think there were actually people focusing on me and listening to me [laughs] – it was a weird thing. But then when I got sober, and was concerned about being able to go on stage without a couple of drinks beforehand, to loosen up, I found it to be way easier.
“I could connect to the music a lot more and connect to that higher power, that source – whatever you wanna call it. And, for me, it’s like meditation now. I can go on stage and I do now feel that – after doing this for 40-odd years – this is obviously what I’m meant to be doing in life. I know it sounds strange, but for a long time I really didn’t believe that. But I think it has to do with growing up.
“It [imposter syndrome] was a tough thing, but I don’t feel like that anymore. I mean, I worked really hard to get past that. But it is paralysing, that’s for sure.”
Carlisle’s very relieved that smartphones and social media were not around when she was in peak party mode. “I would’ve been the Lindsay Lohan of my time!” she says, wide-eyed. “Oh my God, yeah. And even when everybody had a cell phone, they didn’t have a camera [inbuilt] yet. So that would’ve been the end of me, that’s for sure. Jesus!
“We were really lucky. None of that was around, so you could behave badly and chances were that no one ever heard about it.”
Artists were almost expected to behave badly, it was considered good for the image back then, right? “Exactly. Of course! I always said being a musician is a good excuse to never, never develop, you know? To never grow up. And people expect you to behave badly. And, anyway, they expected ME to behave badly. So that’s what I gave them. And I was really good at it,” she trails off laughing.
Belinda Carlisle’s Once Upon a Time in California is out now through Demon Music.
