Talking Heads

About

Talking Heads were an American rock band that began performing under that name in 1975 in New York City. The band was composed of David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), Tina Weymouth (bass) and Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar). Described as “one of the most critically acclaimed groups of the ’80s,” Talking Heads helped to pioneer new wave music by combining elements of punk, art rock, funk, and world music with “an anxious yet clean-cut image”; they have been called “a properly postmodernist band.” Byrne, Frantz, and Weymouth met as freshmen at the Rhode Island School of Design, where Byrne and Frantz were part of a band called the Artistics.: 24  The trio moved to New York City in 1975, adopted the name Talking Heads, joined the New York punk scene, and recruited Harrison to round out the band. Their debut album, Talking Heads: 77, was released in 1977 to positive reviews. They collaborated with the British producer Brian Eno on the acclaimed albums More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978), Fear of Music (1979), and Remain in Light (1980), which blended their art school sensibilities with influence from artists such as Parliament-Funkadelic and Fela Kuti. From the early 1980s, they included additional musicians in their recording sessions and shows, including guitarist Adrian Belew, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, singer Nona Hendryx, and bassist Busta Jones. Talking Heads reached their commercial peak in 1983 with the U.S. Top 10 hit “Burning Down the House” from the album Speaking in Tongues. In 1984, they released the concert film Stop Making Sense, directed by Jonathan Demme. For these performances, they were joined by Worrell, the guitarist Alex Weir, the percussionist Steve Scales and the singers Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt. In 1985, Talking Heads released their best-selling album, Little Creatures. They produced a soundtrack album for Byrne’s film True Stories (1986), and released their final album, the worldbeat-influenced Naked (1988), before disbanding in 1991. Without Byrne, the other band members performed under the name Shrunken Heads, and released an album, No Talking, Just Head, as the Heads in 1996. In 2002, Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Four of their albums appeared on Rolling Stone’s 2003 list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, and three of their songs (“Psycho Killer”, “Life During Wartime”, and “Once in a Lifetime”) were included among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Talking Heads were also ranked number 64 on VH1’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”. In the 2011 update of Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”, they were ranked number 100.

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