Talking Heads

Byrne, Frantz, and Weymouth met at the Rhode Island School of Design, where Byrne and Frantz were part of the band the Artistics. The trio moved to New York City in 1975, adopted the name Talking Heads, joined the New York punk scene, and recruited Harrison. They signed to Sire Records in 1976 and released their debut album, Talking Heads: 77, the following year 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 artistic sensibilities with influence from artists such as Parliament-Funkadelic and Fela Kuti. A cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River" was their first Billboard Top 30 hit. In the 1980s, they added musicians to their recording sessions and shows, including guitarist Adrian Belew, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, singer Nona Hendryx, and bassist Busta Jones. They produced the live album The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads (1982).
Talking Heads achieved mainstream commercial success with their fifth studio album, Speaking in Tongues (1983), featuring "Burning Down the House" and "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)". Their performance at the Pantages Theatre was featured in Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense (1984), often regarded as the greatest concert film of all time. The band had further commercial success with Little Creatures (1985), their best-selling studio album, featuring "And She Was" and "Road to Nowhere". They produced a soundtrack album for Byrne's film True Stories (1986), which produced the single "Wild Wild Life". They bowed out with the worldbeat-influenced Naked (1988), which produced "(Nothing But) Flowers". Byrne departed in 1991, and for a time the other band members performed under the name Shrunken Heads. They released the album No Talking, Just Head (1996) as the Heads, featuring various singers, before disbanding. While the band has appeared publicly together for promotional appearances in the years since their disbandment, they have rejected offers to reunite, with the exception of a short one-off performance at the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2002.
Four Talking Heads albums appeared on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and "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. The band was 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.