Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song)

Like other songs on Remain in Light, Talking Heads and the producer Brian Eno developed "Once in a Lifetime" by recording jams, isolating the best parts, and learning to play them repetitively. However, Byrne had faith in the song and felt he could write lyrics to it. Eno developed the chorus melody by singing wordlessly, and the song "fell into place". Eno interpreted the rhythm differently from the band, with the third beat of the bar as the first. == Lyrics ==

Byrne improvised lines as if he were giving a sermon, with a call and response chorus like a preacher and congregation. His vocals are "half-spoken, half-sung", with lyrics about living in a "beautiful house" with a "beautiful wife" and a "large automobile". The Guardian writer Jack Malcolm suggested that "Once in a Lifetime" can be read "as an art-pop rumination on the existential ticking time bomb of unchecked consumerism and advancing age". Although the narrator has these trophies, he questions whether they are real and how he acquired them, a kind of existential crisis. The Australian songwriter David Bridie connected the mentions of water in the gospel-like chorus to Harrison's "watery" synthesizer arpeggio. Byrne denied that the lyrics address yuppie greed and said they were about the unconscious: "We operate half-awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else, and we haven't really stopped to ask ourselves, 'How did I get here? Eno said that Byrne combined the "blood-and-thunder intonation of the preacher" with optimistic lyrics: "It's saying what a fantastic place we live in, let's celebrate it. That was a radical thing to do when everyone was so miserable and grey!" == Music video ==

dances erratically over footage of religious rituals, dressed in a suit, bowtie and glasses. In the "Once in a Lifetime" music video, Byrne appears in a large, empty white room, dressed in a suit, bowtie and glasses. In the background, inserted via bluescreen, footage of religious rituals or multiple Byrnes appears. Byrne dances erratically, imitating the movements of the rituals and moving in "spasmic" full-body contortions. At the end of the video, a "normal" version of Byrne appears in a black room, dressed in a white open-collared shirt without glasses. The video was directed by Byrne and Toni Basil and choreographed by Basil. Byrne said he studied "the general phenomenon of religious ectsasy" and derived movements from them, making them into "a sort of spastic dance". == Release ==

In 1981, "Once in a Lifetime" reached on the Dutch Top 40 in February and on the UK singles chart in March. In the UK, it was certified silver in January 2018, gold in April 2021, and platinum in December 2023. A 12-inch promotional dance club mix was released in October 1984. A live version, taken from the 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, reached number 91 on the US. Billboard Hot 100 in 1986. An early version, "Right Start", was released on the 2006 reissue of Remain in Light. == Legacy ==

In 2000, NPR named "Once in a Lifetime" one of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. In 2016, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed it as one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll", and Malcolm Jack wrote in The Guardian that it was "a thing of dizzying power, beauty and mystery" that "sounds like nothing else in the history of pop". Rolling Stone ranked "Once in a Lifetime" number 28 on its 2021 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2023, the Australian songwriter David Bridie wrote that it was the "most perfect song of all time", writing that it was "cool and edgy" and yet could be played in supermarkets. and Record World called it "a polyrhythmic journey through his heart of darkness ... the vocal intensity and melodic beauty are enthralling". In 1989, Spin readers voted the "Once in a Lifetime" video the sixth-best of the 1980s. In 2003, the BBC critic Chris Jones described the video as "hilarious" and "as compelling as it was in 1981". In 2021, Rolling Stone named it the 81st-best music video. "Weird Al" Yankovic recreated it in the music video for his 1989 song "UHF", with a similar suit and dance. In 1996, Kermit the Frog performed "Once in a Lifetime" on Muppets Tonight while wearing Byrne's "big suit" and mimicking his dances from Stop Making Sense. == Charts ==