Belinda Carlisle's covers album, "Once Upon a Time in California," includes songs from The Carpenters, Jim Croce and The Hollies.
Belinda Carlisle reunited with The Go-Go's for a 2025 performance at Coachella, but says there are no plans for the band in the near future.
USA TODAY's The Essentials: Years of touring can irritate vocal cords, and Belinda Carlisle still hits the road for a spate of dates several times a year.

If there is one thing Belinda Carlisle knows, it's California.

Born in Hollywood and raised in nearby Thousand Oaks, the voice behind frolic-inducing '80s gems "We Got the Beat" and "Vacation" with The Go-Go's – and "Mad About You" and "Heaven is a Place on Earth" as a solo star – has sunshine in her veins.

In late August, Carlisle unveiled her latest musical project, "Once Upon a Time in California," a collection of 10 cover songs with ties to her home state or ones that evoke a breezy vibe. She tweaked the vocal arrangement of The Association's "Never My Love" to nod to the quintessential California band, The Beach Boys, and channeled the spirit of Karen Carpenter on The Carpenters' slice of melancholy beauty, "Superstar." Songs from Harry Nilsson ("Everybody's Talking"), Jim Croce ("Time in a Bottle") and The Hollies ("The Air That I Breathe") also made the final cut.

"I was born and raised in California when music was part of the culture," Carlisle says. "My escape as a young girl was California radio and that inspired me to be a singer one day. That, or being an actress."

The idea for the album has percolated since 2017 and Carlisle says she thought of the title a few years ago.

Now, the gregarious pop icon, 67, shares with us from her home in Mexico City not only some background on some of her chosen songs and The Go-Go's triumphant Coachella performance, but other essentials in her life to keep her voice in shape and her musical interests piqued.

Coachella was a blast, but The Go-Go’s are over – for now

In April, The Go-Go's reunited to became a highlight of Coachella, and for Carlisle, their inclusion on a bill with Lady Gaga and Green Day was, "one of the most amazing experiences" despite heat so intense that she burned the bottoms of her bare feet on stage.

Though the band dissolved in 2022 because, as Carlisle says, "all of us have our own lives and I wanted a different type of life," the group still subscribes to a "never say never" ethos.

"The Go-Go's can have five years apart and get back together and it's magic," she says. "We have no plans to do anything else, but maybe, maybe not. Everybody is doing great."

When asked what life would have been like if cell phones existed during The Go-Go's notoriously boisterous heyday, Carlisle laughs.

"We are so lucky because it would have been insane," she says. "We would have been a hot topic all over the internet every day, every night because we behaved like the boys but we were girls."

From Depeche Mode to Miles Davis, Belinda Carlisle's musical tastes run deep

While many of the artists on her new album inspired her to pursue a music career, Carlisle reels off a disparate list of favorite artists.

It's not surprising that The Beach Boys' masterpiece "Pet Sounds" tops her list, but she also tags Depeche Mode's 1990 album "Violator" as "one of the best albums ever made" and one that prompted a new appreciation for electronic music.

She also cites Crowded House's self-titled 1986 debut as an album "that never gets old" because of the "unusual songwriting and chord structures" and notes an affinity for the band's parent group Split Enz, as well as Miles Davis and the punk era that informed some of The Go-Go's earliest material.

The song that reminds Belinda Carlisle of her youth

Though "Superstar," written by Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell in 1969 and a Top 5 hit for The Carpenters two years later, tells a sad tale of a female groupie and a rock star, "it's the song that brings me back to riding my bike in Thousand Oaks," Carlisle says.

She expresses obvious admiration for Karen Carpenter's velvety voice that ached as much as it caressed.

"She and Maria Callas, they have this quality, this pure voice that you can't really put into words how beautiful it was," she says. "There is something in their voices that just rips your heart out."

Belinda Carlisle credits yoga and meditation for her wellbeing

Years of touring can irritate vocal cords and Carlisle still hits the road for a spate of dates several times a year (a current run in the U.K. wraps Sept. 13).

Her secret to vocal preservation is traveling with three humidifiers and turning the heat on as soon as she gets into a hotel room.

"I can't sing more than two days in a row and there are no late nights for me," she says, instead turning to long walks, yoga and meditation for fulfillment. "When I'm in work mode there is no socializing, even on the phone. I did plenty of that back in the day."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Belinda Carlisle dishes on burned feet at Coachella, humidifiers and new covers album

Reporting by Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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