The Ten Best Talking Heads Songs

Talking Heads emerged from the mid-1970s CBGB scene, along with Blondie, The Ramones, and Television. Neurotic Scottish-born David Byrne formed the band with Chris Frantz. When the new band was unable to find a bass player, Frantz’s girlfriend Tina Weymouth learned to play by listening to Suzi Quatro records. The band was completed by keyboardist and guitarist Jerry Harrison, who’d previously played with Jonathan Richman in The Modern Lovers.

The band started playing nervy new wave, exemplified by the 1977 single ‘Psycho Killer’. They beefed up their sound with the help of producer Brian Eno, culminating in the 1980 masterpiece Remain in Light. The band’s 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense is beloved. Afterwards Talking Heads became a vehicle for David Byrne; he dominated their less successful later efforts like 1985’s Little Creatures and 1986’s True Stories.

Here are my picks for the ten best Talking Heads songs. The band have a lot of great album tracks, so popular singles like ‘Psycho Killer’, ‘Life During Wartime’, ‘Road to Nowhere’, and ‘And She Was’ missed the cut.

Ten Best Talking Heads Songs

Listening Wind

from Remain in Light, 1980
Remain in Light is a studio-intense creation, influenced by the African poly-rhythms of Fela Kuti. ‘Listening Wind’, nestled in the mellower second half of the record, features Arabic sounds. It tells the story of an anti-Imperialism terrorist – the terse narrative leads into the unexpectedly beautiful and haunting chorus (“the wind in my heart”).

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Crosseyed and Painless

from Remain in Light, 1980
The three opening tracks on Remain in Light are all terrific, with lengthy running times to explore Afro-beat rhythms. ‘Crosseyed and Painless’ is a studio-based creation – Eno and Byrne created the tracks from loops of the band’s jams. It’s therefore impressive that the band could recreate it live, and it’s a highlight of Stop Making Sense, with Byrne playing lead guitar.

Facts are simple and facts are straight.
Facts are lazy and facts are late.
Facts all come with points of view.
Facts don’t do what I want them to.

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Thank You For Sending Me An Angel

from More Songs About Buildings and Food, 1978
The opening track from the Talking Heads’ first album with Brian Eno in the producer’s chair. ‘Thank You For Sending Me An Angel’ explodes out of the gate with its lively rhythm guitar and Chris Frantz’s drum fills. I have no idea what Byrne’s singing about, but it doesn’t match the title – “first I’ll walk in circles ’round you, but first I’ll walk around the world.”

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Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town

from Talking Heads ’77, 1977
On the Talking Heads’ debut, David Byrne is creepily insincere. On the opening track, ‘Uh-Oh Love Comes to Town’ he’s so insincere that it’s charming. Backed with Chris Frantz’s cheesy steel pans, Byrne sings lines that would fit better as the opening theme for a children’s TV show; “So here come a riddle, here come a clue. If you were really smart, you’d know what to do.”

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Memories Can’t Wait

from Fear of Music, 1979
Much of 1979’s Fear of Music follows a brilliant formula – the songs have one word titles, Byrne’s lyrics express his concerns about the titular object, over his and Harrison’s interlocking guitars. ‘Memories Can’t Wait’ is tucked into the centre of the record, and rhythmically focused, with the pulsing, reverbed guitar.
Living Colour covered ‘Memories Can’t Wait’ on their debut album.

There’s a party in my mind
And I hope it never stops
There’s a party up there all the time
And they’ll party till they drop

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This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)

from Speaking in Tongues, 1983
The closing track to 1983’s Speaking in Tongues, ‘This Must Be The Place’ is an unusual Talking Heads song. It’s an uncharacteristically straightforward declaration of love from Byrne. The band members swap instruments – while Frantz is on drums, Weymouth is on guitar, Harrison plays synth bass, while Byrne alternates between guitar and keyboards, taking the synth solo. The democratisation of streaming platforms has turned ‘This Must Be The Place’ into one of the Talking Heads’ most popular songs.

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Burning Down The House

from Speaking in Tongues, 1983
The opener for Speaking in Tongues was inspired by Byrne observing the religious fervour at a Parliament/Funkadelic concert, and it channels George Clinton’s funk through new wave. The studio version is fine, but the definitive version is on 1984’s Stop Making Sense. The band is augmented by guest musicians, including Parliament’s Bernie Worrell, delivering a punchier take.

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The Great Curve

from Remain in Light, 1980
Guitarist Adrian Belew, soon to join Robert Fripp in King Crimson, was an important auxiliary musician on Remain In Light. ‘The Great Curve’ is his shining moment, with his stunt guitar adding firepower to the funky groove. Byrne’s lyrics are inspired by Africa; the line “The world moves on a woman’s hips”, was garnered from Professor Robert Farris Thompson’s book African Art in Motion.

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Once In A Lifetime

from Remain in Light, 1980
The best-known song from Talking Heads’ 1980 masterpiece, Remain In Light. ‘Once In A Lifetime’ is hooky and radio-friendly. The verses consist of David Byrne aphorisms – “And you may find yourself in a beautiful house/ With a beautiful wife/And you may ask yourself, well/ How did I get here?” I love how producer Brian Eno is clearly audible in the chorus backing vocals.

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I Zimbra

from Fear of Music, 1979
Everything that makes Talking Heads great is in the opener to 1979’s Fear of Music – the creative rhythms, with the band signalling the African explorations of Remain in Light, the terrific production and textural exploration from Brian Eno, and Harrison and Byrnes inter-locking guitar parts. The lyrics weren’t written by Byrne – they’re from dada-ist German poet Hugo Ball.

Did I leave out your favourite Talking Heads song? Do you agree that Remain in Light is one of the greatest albums of the 1980s? How do you feel about 1985’s Little Creatures?