The Go-Go's/Belinda Carlisle

L.A. all-girl five-piece the Go-Go's, fronted by Belinda Carlisle, stormed to the front lines of the breakout new wave scene in 1981 with debut album Beauty and the Beat — tracks like "We Got the Beat," which fused big pop hooks to surf guitar shot through with live-wire energy, helped install the album at the top of the charts for six weeks during 1982, and marked the arrival of an inspirational, mould-breaking outfit. Our selection of their finest work takes in later material, too, like 2001's "Unforgiven" (cowritten by Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong), as well as standout solo singles from Carlisle ("Heaven is a Place on Earth") and guitarist Jane Wiedlin ("Rush Hour"). A couple of fascinating Go-Go's side-projects sneak their way into Next Steps.

Although the career of the Go-Go's was put on ice (barring a couple of short-lived reunions) during much of late '80s and '90s, the band reconvened at the start of the '00s for their fourth studio album, God Bless the Go-Go's (2001) — highlights include the supercharged "La la Land" and the harmony-filled ballad "Apology." Other tracks well worth singling out for a mention include a cover of the Capitols' 1966 hit "Cool Jerk," released in 1991, Jane Wiedlin's collaboration with Sparks from 1983, "Cool Places," and the razor-edged "Down Underground" by the Delphines, bassist Kathy Valentine's side-project with vocalist Dominique Davalos. In Deep Cuts, edgy early Go-Go's contrasts with Belinda Carlisle's glossy pop.

Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's, released in 1994, is a brilliant snapshot of the band's early years, featuring electrifying rarities like "Beatnik Beaches," which overhauls the classic surf sound with a varnish of scuzz, and salty, sidewinding B-sides, including "Surfing and Spying." As the most commercially successful of the band's solo stars, Belinda Carlisle (massive in the U.K. and Europe during the '90s) gets the lion's share of the extra-curricular tracks here: check out the rockin' chorus on "Runaway Horses," the lighter touches of acoustic ballad "Vision of You," and her French-language cover of Edith Piaf's "La vie en rose," from 2007 chanson project Voilà.

Although you'd never guess it from Belinda Carlisle's throwback cover-girl looks or from the bright power pop of tracks like "Head Over Heels" and "Our Lips Are Sealed," the Go-Go's arose from the late-'70s L.A. punk scene, before becoming America's all-girl new wave darlings. Not that they didn't continue to explore the wilder side of rock 'n' roll — in fact, the band's collective appetite for a party has become the stuff of legend — but their independent punk spirit was most evident in their admirable (and ultimately successful) determination to keep control of their material from the hands of male managers and producers. Two thousand-ten was to be the year of the band's farewell tour until Jane Wiedlin injured her knee in a hiking accident, and here we look back over the proto-riot grrrls' best group cuts and stunning solo/side-project output.