Song · The Go-Go's
“This Town” by The Go-Go's
From the album Beauty and the Beat (1981)
“This Town” by The Go-Go's appears on 5 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1981 and 2023. It was first released in 1981 on the album Beauty and the Beat. Its best result is #50 on the KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1981. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #50 alternative song of 1981 and #4,580 alternative song of all time.
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"This Town" comes from Beauty and the Beat, the debut album the Go-Go's released on I.R.S. Records in July 1981, and it's a group effort in the truest sense: Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin wrote it, with a credit to the whole band, and Belinda Carlisle sings lead while Caffey and Wiedlin chime in behind her.
Everybody's hands are on it. Caffey, Wiedlin and Kathy Valentine all play guitar, Caffey adds keyboards, Valentine takes the bass and Gina Schock drives the drums and percussion. Richard Gottehrer and Rob Freeman produced it, with Freeman also recording and mixing, and the result is new wave with the sugar and the snap left in. The album around it climbed all the way to number one on Billboard's album chart and, in 2026, went into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 50 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1981 | 106 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 232 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1988) | 496 |
| 1989 | 423 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1989) | 495 |
| 1998 | 466 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1998) | 488 |
| 2023 | 439 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
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