This song was not originally written with high school girls as the target audience. The rhythm guitarist, Jane Wiedlin, wrote the song to her then boyfriend with whom she'd had an affair before he returned to England. Being the pre-email years, she and the guy exchanged a lot of written letters for the duration of their romance. Jane wrote these song lyrics and music in her parents' basement--a recording of which survives to this day--and the music sounded much slower and more downbeat, almost bluesy. When the Go Gos got signed and recorded their first album, the song was chosen as the lead-off hit single, but only after the producer and Go Gos transformed the somewhat dark song into poppy, happy, very upbeat song.
This song was not originally written with high school girls as the target audience. The rhythm guitarist, Jane Wiedlin, wrote the song to her then boyfriend with whom she'd had an affair before he returned to England. Being the pre-email years, she and the guy exchanged a lot of written letters for the duration of their romance. Jane wrote these song lyrics and music in her parents' basement--a recording of which survives to this day--and the music sounded much slower and more downbeat, almost bluesy. When the Go Gos got signed and recorded their first album, the song was chosen as the lead-off hit single, but only after the producer and Go Gos transformed the somewhat dark song into poppy, happy, very upbeat song.