This 1981 Hit Was About a Secret Affair Between Touring Band Members Hiding in Plain Sight

Musical artists have been writing, recording, and performing songs about their romantic affairs since time immemorial. For some bands, the infidelity is part of their schtick (*gestures broadly to Fleetwood Mac post-1975*). But for others, these little tête-à-têtes were so few and far between that the affair really could hide in plain sight, even if they were literally singing their confession. Among this latter camp of cheating songs was The Go-Go’s’ 1981 hit, “Our Lips Are Sealed”.

During a 2026 installment of “Sounds Of America” by WAMU and NPR, Jane Wiedlin revealed that her power pop band’s worldwide hit started as a flirty collaboration between her and Terry Hall, the lead singer of The Specials and Fun Boy Three. The pair’s fling began around the time that The Go-Go’s opened for The Specials on a string of shows in the United Kingdom.

The only problem, of course, was that Hall had a serious girlfriend in his native U.K. Thus, he took to sending Wiedlin poetry and potential lyrics via snail mail. Within this context of two people pretending that they’re not having an affair when they very much are, “Our Lips Are Sealed” sounds painfully obvious. “Can you hear them? They talk about us / Telling lies, well that’s no surprise.”

“Our Lips Are Sealed” Fared Far Better Than Jane and Terry’s Relationship

The Go-Go’s released “Our Lips Are Sealed” as their debut single on their debut album, Beauty And The Beat. The song only peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. But it remained on the chart for an exceptionally long time. In total, “Our Lips Are Sealed” spent 30 weeks on the charts, stretching into 1982. Today, it remains one of The Go-Go’s’ most popular and beloved tracks.

Indeed, the song fared far better than the romance that inspired it. “Like I said,” Jane Wiedlin told SongFacts, “he had a girlfriend in England, and they were talking about getting married and all this stuff. So, I don’t know how I got in the picture. You know, that’s something that I did as a teenager. Maybe I was 20. That’s something I would never do now, knowingly enter into a relationship with someone who has someone else. It was one of those things with the tragic letters, ‘I just can’t do this.’ You know, ‘I’m betrothed to another.’ All that kind of stuff.”

Speaking to WAMU, Wiedlin recalled feeling so emotionally attached to the song that she was afraid to show it to the other Go-Go’s on the off chance they wouldn’t accept it for the band. “Eventually, I did, and then they liked it too, which was great, because it ended up being a really important part of our history.” 

Photo by Charlie Gillett/Redferns

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