Fun Boy Three didn’t come off an assembly line either, being three ex-members of The Specials.
Go Gos? Never mind the Go Gos! I wanna see the Goo Goos!
Is there such a thing as the Goo Goos?
How about Goo-Goo Dolls?
I saw The Go-Go’s live at the Wildflower! Festival in Richardson, Texas, in 2001. It was shortly after Joey Ramone had died, and just prior to the release of God Bless The Go-Go’s. If you don’t believe they ever had punk roots, you would after hearing Belinda Carlisle sing “I Wanna Be Sedated” in Joey’s honour that afternoon… oh, and all the songs on God Bless The Go-Go’s, too!
Plus, Jane Wiedlin looked absolutely hot in her combat boots!
I’m on record somewhere around her saying that the GoGos are far underrated. Better than the Bangles? Tough call, but I’d say so. That said, Hazy Shade of Winter might be the best song by either one. But the GoGos have a deeper catalog of great songs, while the Bangles have more crap (Manic Monday).
The GoGos have a deeper catalog of great hit songs. There’s plenty of agreement in the Bangles thread that The Bangles best songs were never released as singles.
So it’s the Go-Go’s, eh? Then the Bangles are the better band due to improper punctuation by the Go-Go’s. 
I was going to mention that it should be “The” and not “the” in both cases, but in checking I found that there is no “The” in Go-Go’s or in Bangles! The “the” in both cases is just added to make sentences sound a little better. (Although The Bangles adopted the “The” early on. It wasn’t there when they first adopted the name.)
Whether there is an official “The” in a band name comes up surprisingly often. But I don’t think it’s an issue for The The.
That’s 'cuz they have no name. There’s no there there.
Serious question: Do we know how the two bands felt about each other’s music? Got along personally? I can look, but nothing immediately comes to mind…
Hoffs has expressed admiration for them in at least one interview over the years. Doubt I can find it. Also I know Vicki Peterson played with them a few times in later years. That does come up, Google says 1994.
Don’t know if it was a ‘real’, founding member, but one of the chicks was an official member of both bands at some point.
Which one?
Looking at their Wikipedia entries, the only overlap in membership seems to be that when the Go-Go’s were touring in the mid-1990s, “ex-Bangle Vicki Peterson stood in on several dates for Caffey, who was pregnant.” That seems to be a bit less than being an official member of the Go-Go’s.
Yeah, that’s the only significant overlap and Peterson really was just a sub to fill in some live dates.
A couple other minor cross-overs:[ul]
[li]Susanna Hoffs co-wrote one song with Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin on the Go-Go’s 2001 album God Bless the Go-Go’s.[/li][li]Charlotte Caffey co-wrote one song with Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson on The Bangles 2003 album Doll Revolution.[/li][/ul]
The Go-Go’s were marketed as pop, but they were very punk at the beginning (including the standard no one knew what the fuck they were doing) but gained some cred after a time. The Bangles were Beatles influenced and more “musical”. Different styles altogether.
Susanna Hoffs over Belinda Carlisle by a country mile in the looks department, but that kinky minx, Jane Weidlin, is the one out of all of them.
Got to be honest and say neither band does much for me. Our Lips Are Sealed is a song I’ve yet to hear a perfect version of although the Fun Boy Three version, by the co-writer, is nearest. I like Hazy Shade of Winter better than the original version but, at the end of the day, it is ‘just’ a cover version. I used to like ***Going Down To Liverpool ***but I listened again recently and it was less compelling than I remember.
Going to mixed sex groups and Voice Of The Beehive had better singles. I still listen to them while the others not so much. Debbie Harry was cooler and sexier. Chrissie Hynde was a better songwriter and way cooler. Divinyls had a way, way, way, way, way sexier singer (who sadly died not that long ago) plus a getting a song I Touch Myself that is so obviously about masturbation in the charts gets bonus points. Then again that’s their only song I know.
TCMF-2L
Abby Travis played bass for both.
Since we’re shooting for all-inclusiveness here, gotta bring in Josie Cotton. Convertible Music was an absolutely fantastic album. It was best known for “Johnny, Are You Queer?” but there’s not a bad song on the album. Sexiness, humor, just enough vulnerability…what’s not to like? Unfortunately, few of its songs are even on YouTube.
Even more unfortunately, her followup album, From the Hip, was basically a piece of crap, and she pretty much disappeared after that.
“All The Boys Town” - you’re welcome. There’s also “Pleasure and Pain” - their only other hit, I think.
Off the same album as I Touch Myself - I think it was just called Divinyls - was a song I love, called Make Out Alright - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-FYVGOWohA I could do without her silly bondage outfit in the video, but man Christina Amphlett had a sexy, whiskey-kitten voice.
In terms of bands in the same era as the Go-Go’s and Bangles featuring great women front…women ;), I was a sucker for Romeo Void (Never Say Never - I might like you better if we slept together), and The Motels (Mission of Mercy; Only the Lonely; Suddenly Last Summer…)