"How Much More" is a song written by

Charlotte Caffey Charlotte Irene Caffey (born October 21, 1953) is an American guitarist and pianist, best known for her work in the rock band the Go-Go's in the 1980s, including writing " We Got the Beat". Career Caffey began her musical career playing bass g ...

and

Jane Wiedlin Jane Wiedlin (born May 20, 1958) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actress, best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and backing vocalist of the new wave music, new wave band The Go-Go's. She voices Dusk, the drummer and ba ...

that was first released as part of the Go-Go's debut single along with "

We Got the Beat "We Got the Beat" is a song by the American all-female rock band the Go-Go's, written by the group's lead guitarist and keyboardist Charlotte Caffey. The band first recorded the song in early 1980 as a single on UK-based Stiff Records, and rerec ...

" in 1980. A re-recorded version was released on their 1981 debut album '' Beauty and the Beat''.

Background

According to Go-Go's lead singer

Belinda Carlisle Belinda Jo Carlisle ( ; born August 17, 1958) is an American singer and songwriter. She gained fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, one of the most successful all-female rock bands of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a sol ...

, "How Much More" was written in early 1980 during a spate in which Caffey and Wiedlin wrote several other songs including "We Got the Beat" and "Lust to Love". According to Caffey, she started the song and Wiedlin helped her finish it not long after she joined the band. Caffey said that originally the song "was more pop, but we still couldn’t play very well, so we kind of created a new sound: melodic but raw." Caffey said that she was nervous about bringing a pop song to the band since until then the Go-Go's were primarily a

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

group. According to Caffey: Fortunately for Caffey, the band did like the song. Carlisle said that she loved the song the first time she heard it, but it sounded even better after producer Paul Wexler recorded it for the single.

Reception

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...

'' writer Michael Goldberg noted its lyrics as among several of the Go-Go's early songs that are about "romance and love – and could easily have been written a few decades arlier" As an example, Goldberg used the lines "Every night I see you walking/Walking by, walking by/You hold your head so close to hers/I could cry, yeah, I could cry/I want to be that girl tonight."

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

critic

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

felt that on the album version, producer

Richard Gottehrer Richard Gottehrer (born June 12, 1940) is an American songwriter, record producer and record label executive. His career began as a Brill Building songwriter in the 1960s. His first number one record as a songwriter and producer was " My Boyfr ...

"sounded down the band's rougher edges", making the song resemble early

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

with its combination of

hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved/bent back or has a deeply grooved indentation, which serves to grab, latch or in any way attach itself onto another object. The hook's d ...

s and harmonies with "kick and jangle". ''LiveAbout'' critic Steve Peake rated "How Much More" as the Go-Go's 2nd best song of the 1980s, calling it "a spirited, guitar-driven new wave classic that bridges the band's raw early work with its later polished pop." Peake particularly praised Caffey's and Wiedlin's guitar playing but said that "it's ultimately the entire ensemble's synergy that turns this song into the band's finest hit single that never was." ''Classic Rock History'' critic Emily Fagen rated it as the Go-Go's 10th best song, calling it a "killer track". ''Trouser Press'' critic Ira Robbins and Karen Schlosberg referred to it as an "enduring anthem". ''Daily Hampshire Gazette'' critic Ken Maiuri noted that this was the song that had gotten him hooked on college radio and taught him that albums had good songs that were not released as singles. ''

Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publish ...

'' writer Geoffery Himes regarded the song as a classic comparable to

the Ronettes The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of the lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Ta ...

' "

Be My Baby "Be My Baby" is a song by the American girl group the Ronettes that was released as a single on Philles Records in August 1963. Written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector, the song was the Ronettes' biggest hit, reaching number ...

" and the Angels' " My Boyfriend's Back". Music journalist

Annie Zaleski Annie Zaleski is a ''New York Times'' best-selling author and music historian. Career Zaleski is a regular writer for mainstream media outlets such as The Guardian and NPR Music, and a columnist at ''Salon''. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio w ...

said that it "smolders with longing, as well as a bit of jealousy and light self-loathing", citing the line "She's looking good/Just like I would/If it could be me". "How Much More" was later released on several Go-Go's

compilation albums A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from one artist, then generally the tracks we ...

, including '' Greatest'' in 1990 and '' Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's'' in 1994.

Live performances

The Go-Go's included "How Much More" in their live concerts in 2000. Carlisle said that "I liked that one reviewer along the way noted how we fell perfectly into sync when we played 'How Much More' and chanted 'How much more can I take before I go crazy, oh yeah! That line could have been a mantra for the band as well as all of us individually, especially me."

''Head over Heels''

"How Much More" was included in the soundtrack of the

Broadway musical Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), many of the extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatr ...

'' Head over Heels''. ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' theater critic

Ben Brantley Benjamin D. Brantley (born October 26, 1954) is an American theater critic, journalist, editor, publisher, and writer. He served as the chief theater critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1996 to 2017, and as co-chief theater critic from 2017 t ...

noted that "How Much More" was one of the few songs that was sung exuberantly in the play. ''Daily Beast'' critic Tim Teeman also specifically praised

Bonnie Milligan Bonnie Milligan is a musical theater performer and television actor, known for her " belting" style of singing and wide vocal range. She was awarded the 2023 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Debra in '' Ki ...

's performance of the song in his review of the show, saying that:

Supernova version

"How Much More" was released as the sixth single by Orange County

pop punk Pop-punk (also punk-pop, alternatively spelled without the hyphen) is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop music, pop. It is defined by its fast-paced, energetic tempos, and emphasis on classic pop s ...

band

Supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...

, on 7" by

Sympathy for the Record Industry Sympathy for the Record Industry (also known as Sympathy Records or Sympathy 4 the R.I.) is a mainly independent garage rock and punk label formed in 1988 by John Mermis, known as Long Gone John. Notable artists who started on Sympathy and went ...

in 1996. ''

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...

New Music Monthly'' called the Supernova version "a faithful cover of one of the Go-Go's greatest songs" and noted that "the Supernova men sing it in the original register and preserve the original 'I want to be that girl tonight' hook."

Track listing

Side A: *How Much More (Caffey, Wiedlin) Side B: *Supernova Intro (live) *Calling Hong Kong (live)

Personnel

*Art Mitchell - vocals, bass guitar *Hayden 'Hank' Thais - guitar, vocals *Dave Collins - drums, vocals

References

{{authority control 1980 songs 1996 singles The Go-Go's songs Supernova (American band) songs Stiff Records singles Songs written by Charlotte Caffey Songs written by Jane Wiedlin Song recordings produced by Richard Gottehrer