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 The Go-Go's are an American all-female Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar ...

in the 1980s, including writing " We Got the Beat".

Career

Caffey began her musical career playing bass guitar in the early Los Angeles

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

band The Eyes before joining

in 1978 and switching to guitar. She remained friends with fellow band member

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 ...

after the initial breakup of the Go-Go's and wrote songs for Carlisle's solo albums. From 1988 until 1992, she led her own band, The Graces, with Meredith Brooks and Gia Ciambotti, who released the album ''Perfect View'' in 1989. Caffey also co-wrote the

theme song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

to the television series '' Clueless'' with

Anna Waronker Anna Jeanette Waronker is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and producer best known as the frontwoman of That Dog. She is the daughter of producer Lenny Waronker and actress and musician Donna Loren, the sister of session drummer Joey ...

, and played piano on the album version of " Foolish Games" by Jewel, as well as co-writing the No. 1 U.S. country hit " But for the Grace of God" with

Keith Urban Keith Lionel Urban ( né Urbahn; 26 October 1967) is an Australian and American country singer, songwriter and guitarist. Recognised with four Grammy Awards, he has also received 15 Academy of Country Music Awards, including the Jim Reeves Int ...

. Caffey wrote the book, music, and lyrics for '' Lovelace: A Rock Musical'' with Anna Waronker. The rock musical debuted at the

Hayworth Theatre The Hayworth Theatre is a theater and performing arts venue at 2511 Wilshire Boulevard located in the Westlake, Los Angeles, Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. History The building that houses the Hayworth is significant due to i ...

in Los Angeles in 2008. A new production of ''Lovelace: A Rock Musical'' made its United Kingdom debut at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

in August 2010. A number of her songs were featured in the 2018 debut of the Broadway musical '' Head Over Heels'', with a story suggested by

Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan age. His works include a sonnet sequence, ' ...

's '' Arcadia'' set to the songs of the Go-Go's and Belinda Carlisle. The Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020; however, in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...

. The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...

that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour.

Personal life

She grew up in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city located primarily in the Verdugo Mountains region, with a small portion in the San Fernando Valley, of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is located about north of downtown Los Angeles. As of 2024, Glendale ha ...

, and graduated from Immaculate Heart College. She is also in Ze Malibu Kids with her husband, the

Redd Kross Redd Kross is an American Rock music, rock band from Hawthorne, California, who had their roots in 1978 in a punk rock band called the Tourists, which was started by brothers Jeff and Steven Shane McDonald, Steve McDonald while Steve was still i ...

singer and guitarist Jeff McDonald. Their only child, a daughter named Astrid McDonald, was born in 1995 and is a singer and model. She was the fourth of twelve children born to Ann (née Gorey) and Michael Caffey (died 2017), an American network television series episode director from the mid-1960s on into the 1990s (The Virginian, Dukes of Hazzard, Barnaby Jones, MacGyver, CHiPs, T.J. Hooker). Charlotte semi-retired from regular performances in the late 1980s because of crippling

carpal tunnel syndrome Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a nerve compression syndrome associated with the collected signs and symptoms of Pathophysiology of nerve entrapment#Compression, compression of the median nerve at the carpal tunnel in the wrist. Carpal tunn ...

Discography

With The Eyes

* 1978: ''Don't Talk To Me'' ingle(What Records?) - bass The Go-Gos - Charlotte Caffey on keyboards

With The Go-Go's

* 1981: '' Beauty and the Beat'' (

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

) * 1982: ''

Vacation A vacation (American English) or holiday (British English) is either a leave of absence from a regular job or school or an instance of leisure travel away from home. People often take a vacation during specific holiday observances or for sp ...

'' (I.R.S.) * 1984: ''

Talk Show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...

'' (I.R.S.) * 2001: '' God Bless The Go-Go's'' (Beyond Music)

With The Graces

* 1989: ''Perfect View'' ( A&M)

Also appears on

* 1980:

The Specials The Specials, also known as the Special AKA, were an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, J ...

– '' More Specials'' (

2 Tone Two-tone, two tone, or 2 tone, etc., may refer to: Audio and sound * Second-order intercept point#Two-tone analysis, Two-tone analysis, in nonlinear system measurement * Two-tone attention signal * Two-tone Warning chime, chime, such as the "ding ...

) – backing vocals * 1982:

Robert Williams Robert, Rob, Robbie, Bob or Bobby Williams may refer to: Architecture * Train %26 Williams#Robert Edmund Williams, Robert Edmund Williams (1874–1960), Canadian-American architect * Robert Williams (architect) (1848–1918), Welsh architect a ...

– ''Late One Night'' (A&M) – vocals on track 8, "Gotta Be Nice" * 1986:

– '' Belinda'' (I.R.S.) – vocals, guitar * 1988: Blake Xolton – ''Cool on My Skin'' (New Rose) – vocals * 1995: Jewel – '' Pieces of You'' (

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

) – arranger, piano * 1998: Penelope Houston – ''Tongue'' (Reprise) – guitar, vocals on track 2, "Tongue"

References

External links

The Go-Go's official website
* *
Lovelace: A Rock Musical
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caffey, Charlotte 1953 births Living people Musicians from Glendale, California Immaculate Heart College alumni American rock guitarists Singer-songwriters from California Writers from Glendale, California The Go-Go's members American lead guitarists American new wave musicians American women singer-songwriters American rock songwriters American women rock singers American women pop singers Guitarists from California Immaculate Heart High School (Los Angeles) alumni 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women guitarists 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American women guitarists 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singer-songwriters Germs (band) members The Graces (band) members 20th-century American singer-songwriters American women punk rock singers American keyboardists American women keyboardists American women new wave singers