1973–1977: Early years In 1973,
Rhode Island School of Design students
David Byrne (guitar and vocals) and
Chris Frantz (drums) formed a band, the Artistics. Frantz has described the Artistics as a "prototype punk band" that would perform a number of covers, including "Psycho" by
the Sonics,
the Who's "
I Can't Explain" and
Al Green's "
Love and Happiness", live. Fellow student
Tina Weymouth, Frantz's girlfriend, often provided transportation. The Artistics dissolved the following year, and the three moved to New York City, eventually sharing a communal loft. After they were unable to find a bassist, Weymouth took up the role. Frantz encouraged Weymouth to learn to play bass by listening to
Suzi Quatro albums. Byrne asked Weymouth to audition three times before she joined the band. The band played their first gig as Talking Heads—opening for the
Ramones at
CBGB in the
East Village—on June 5, 1975. Later that year, the band recorded a series of demos for
CBS, but did not receive a record contract. However, they drew a following and signed to
Sire Records in November 1976. They released their first single in February the following year, "
Love → Building on Fire". In March 1977, they added
Jerry Harrison, formerly of
the Modern Lovers, on keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals.
Gary Kurfirst started managing Talking Heads in 1977. Many connected the song to the
serial killer known as the
Son of Sam, who had been terrorizing New York City months earlier; however, Byrne said he had written the song years prior. Weymouth and Frantz married in 1977.
1978–1980: Collaborations with Brian Eno More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978) was Talking Heads' first collaboration with producer
Brian Eno, who had previously worked with
Roxy Music,
David Bowie,
John Cale, and
Robert Fripp; the title of Eno's 1977 song "
King's Lead Hat" is an
anagram of the band's name. Eno's unusual style meshed with the group's artistic sensibilities, and they began to explore an increasingly diverse range of musical directions—from
psychedelic funk to
Afrobeat, influenced prominently by
Fela Kuti and
Parliament-Funkadelic. This recording also established the band's relationship with
Compass Point Studios in
Nassau, The Bahamas.
More Songs About Buildings and Food included a cover of
Al Green's "
Take Me to the River", which brought Talking Heads into the public consciousness and gave them their first
Billboard Top 30 hit. The single "
Life During Wartime" produced the catchphrase "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco". The song refers to the
Mudd Club and CBGB, two popular New York nightclubs of the time. {{Listen
Remain in Light (1980) was heavily influenced by Fela Kuti, whose music had been introduced to the band by Eno. It explored West African
polyrhythms, weaving these together with Arabic music from North Africa, disco, funk, and "found" voices. These combinations foreshadowed Byrne's later interest in
world music. To perform these more complex arrangements, the band toured with an expanded group, including guitarist
Adrian Belew and keyboardist
Bernie Worrell among others, first at the
Heatwave festival in August 1980. During this period, Weymouth and Frantz formed a commercially successful splinter group,
Tom Tom Club, influenced by the foundational elements of
hip hop, and Harrison released his first solo album,
The Red and the Black. Byrne and Eno released
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which incorporated world music, found sounds and a number of other prominent international and post-punk musicians.
Remain in Lights lead single, "
Once in a Lifetime", became a Top 20 hit in the UK, but initially failed to make an impression in the US. It grew into a popular standard over the next few years on the strength of its music video, which
Time named one of the greatest of all time.
1981–1991: Commercial peak and breakup After releasing four albums in barely four years, the group went on a recording hiatus, and nearly three years passed before their next release, although Frantz and Weymouth continued to record with Tom Tom Club. In the meantime, Talking Heads released the live album
The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads, toured the United States and Europe as an eight-piece group, and parted ways with Eno, who went on to produce albums with
U2. Once again, a striking video was inescapable, owing to it being played so much on MTV. The following tour was documented in
Jonathan Demme's
Stop Making Sense, which generated another live album
of the same name. The tour in support of
Speaking in Tongues was their last. Three more albums followed: 1985's
Little Creatures (which featured the hit singles "
And She Was" and "
Road to Nowhere"), 1986's
True Stories (Talking Heads covering all the soundtrack songs of Byrne's
musical comedy film, in which the band also appeared), and 1988's
Naked.
Little Creatures offered a much more American pop-rock sound as opposed to previous efforts. Similar in genre,
True Stories hatched one of the group's most successful hits, "
Wild Wild Life", and the accordion-driven track "Radio Head".
Naked explored politics, sex, and death, with much African influence of polyrhythmic styles like those seen on
Remain in Light. During that time, the group was falling increasingly under David Byrne's control, and after
Naked, the band went on "hiatus". Their final release was "Sax and Violins", an original song that had appeared earlier that year on the soundtrack to
Wim Wenders'
Until the end of the World. Byrne continued his solo career, releasing
Rei Momo in 1989 and
The Forest in 1991. and Harrison (
Casual Gods and
Walk on Water), who toured together in 1990.
1992–present: Post-breakup and reunions Harrison produced records such as the
Violent Femmes'
The Blind Leading the Naked; the
Fine Young Cannibals'
The Raw and the Cooked; General Public's
Rub It Better; Crash Test Dummies'
God Shuffled His Feet; Live's
Mental Jewelry,
Throwing Copper, and
The Distance to Here; and
No Doubt's song "New" from
Return of Saturn. Frantz and Weymouth have produced for several artists, including
Happy Mondays and
Ziggy Marley. Tom Tom Club continues to record and tour intermittently. in 2010 Weymouth, Frantz, and Harrison toured without Byrne as Shrunken Heads in the early 1990s. In 1996, they released an album,
No Talking, Just Head, under the name the Heads. The album featured a number of vocalists, including
Gavin Friday of
the Virgin Prunes,
Debbie Harry of
Blondie,
Johnette Napolitano of
Concrete Blonde,
Andy Partridge of
XTC,
Gordon Gano of
Violent Femmes,
Michael Hutchence of
INXS,
Ed Kowalczyk of
Live,
Shaun Ryder of
Happy Mondays,
Richard Hell, and
Maria McKee. It was accompanied by a tour with Napolitano as the vocalist. Byrne took legal action to prevent the band using the name the Heads, which he saw as "a pretty obvious attempt to cash in on the Talking Heads name". The band briefly reunited in 1999 to promote the 15th anniversary re-release of
Stop Making Sense, but did not perform together. Talking Heads reunited to play "Life During Wartime", "Psycho Killer", and "Burning Down the House" on March 18, 2002, at the ceremony of their induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, joined onstage by former touring members
Bernie Worrell and Steve Scales. Byrne said further work together was unlikely, due to "bad blood" and being musically "miles apart". Weymouth has been critical of Byrne, describing him as "a man incapable of returning friendship" In September 2023,
Stop Making Sense was re-released in
IMAX with remastered sound and picture to coincide for its 40th anniversary. The band members reunited that month for a Q&A at the
Toronto International Film Festival, following limited showings of the film in theaters, and gave interviews together to promote the re-release. Byrne said that the band members had become more comfortable with one another, but that he did not want to make new music or tour with Talking Heads. He said: "Musically, I've gone to a very different place... It's pretty much impossible to recapture where you were at that time in your life." In January 2024,
Billboard reported that Talking Heads had turned down $80 million for a reunion tour, which would have included a performance at
Coachella. (seated to the left),
Pantages Theater, June 2024 In 2023 and 2025, Harrison and Belew toured with a band performing
Remain in Light songs. On June 5, 2025, their 50th anniversary, Talking Heads released a music video for "Psycho Killer" directed by
Mike Mills and starring
Saoirse Ronan. ==Musical style==