Once in a Lifetime

Of all the acts to emerge from New York City's fertile post-punk backdrop, art-school avant-gardists Talking Heads stood out from the rest with their perennial musical adventurism, dabbling in everything from post-punk guitar-pop to terse funk-rock to complex, no-boundaries world-music explorations, defying all known rock genres and creating a sound all their own. All this earned them the expected continuing critical acclaim throughout their 15 years in the business and, surprisingly, a fair measure of commercial success as well, particularly with 1980's astonishingly groundbreaking 'Remain in Light' album. Check out the signature track from that magnum opus, the frantically percolating, hyper-excited 'Once in a Lifetime', which is marked by a hooky singalong chorus, one of the most complicated rhythm tracks of any rock song, and a brilliantly idiosyncratic video that features frontman David Byrne in a maniacally prancing performance, and deftly displays his wonderfully high-strung vocal mannerisms.