Talking Heads’ ‘Talking Heads: 77’ turns 49 on 16 September
Talking Heads’ debut album “Talking Heads: 77” turns 49 on 16 September. The 1977 Sire Records release features the single “Psycho Killer.”
Talking Heads’ debut studio album, “Talking Heads: 77,” turns 49 this year. The New York band released the record on 16 September 1977 through Sire Records. Recording took place at Sundragon Studios in New York, with a first block of sessions in April and May 1977 and a final round of overdubs and mixing at ODO Studios in June.
“Talking Heads: 77” runs eleven tracks and just under 39 minutes. It was produced by Tony Bongiovi, Lance Quinn and Talking Heads, with Ed Stasium engineering and mixing. All songs were written by David Byrne, except closer “Psycho Killer,” co-written with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. The tracklist runs “Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town,” “New Feeling,” “Tentative Decisions,” “Happy Day,” “Who Is It?,” “No Compassion,” “The Book I Read,” “Don’t Worry About the Government,” “First Week/Last Week…Carefree,” “Psycho Killer” and “Pulled Up.” The cover photograph was shot by Mick Rock, with cover art credited to David Byrne.
“Psycho Killer” reached number 92 on the US Billboard Hot 100 after its release as a single in December 1977, and the album itself peaked at number 97 on the Billboard 200 and number 60 on the UK Albums Chart. “Talking Heads: 77” is included in the reference book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die” and was ranked among Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” A remastered deluxe edition followed in 2005 with bonus tracks, and a further expanded box set was released in November 2024 with outtakes and a live 1977 CBGB recording.
About Talking Heads
Talking Heads formed in New York in 1975 as a trio of David Byrne on guitar and vocals, Chris Frantz on drums and Tina Weymouth on bass, all former students at the Rhode Island School of Design. The three moved into a shared loft on the Lower East Side and began performing at CBGB, the club that anchored the city’s punk and new-wave scene alongside acts such as the Ramones and Television. Jerry Harrison, formerly of the Modern Lovers, joined on guitar and keyboards in 1977, completing the lineup before recording began on the band’s debut album.
Sire Records co-founder Seymour Stein signed Talking Heads in November 1976 after seeing the band open for the Ramones. Sessions for “Talking Heads: 77” started at Sundragon Studios in April 1977 with producers Tony Bongiovi and Lance Quinn, with a break in recording for a European tour supporting the Ramones before the group returned to New York in June to finish vocals, overdubs and mixing at ODO Studios. The album was released on 16 September 1977 in the US and UK through Sire, and by Philips Records across continental Europe.
Talking Heads followed their debut with “More Songs About Buildings and Food” (1978), “Fear of Music” (1979) and “Remain in Light” (1980), the latter two produced with Brian Eno, before the band’s biggest commercial success with “Speaking in Tongues” (1983) and the concert film “Stop Making Sense” (1984). The band disbanded in 1991. Forty-nine years after its release, “Talking Heads: 77” remains the starting point of that catalogue and the first appearance on record of “Psycho Killer.”
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