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"Wild Wild Life" | ||||
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Single by Talking Heads | ||||
from the album True Stories | ||||
Released | August 1986 [1] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length |
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Label | Sire | |||
Songwriter(s) | David Byrne | |||
Producer(s) |
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Talking Heads singles chronology | ||||
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Official video | ||||
"Wild Wild Life" on YouTube |
"Wild Wild Life" is a song by American rock band Talking Heads, released as the lead single from their seventh studio album True Stories . It was the band's third and last top 40 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Cash Box called it "quirky and typically fun." [3] Billboard said that Talking Heads "put a minimal post-new wave accompaniment to a bouncy singalong tune." [4]
The video for the song won "Best Group Video" at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1987. Taken from the film True Stories , with some additional content, it includes band member Jerry Harrison parodying Billy Idol, Kid Creole, Ralph Macchio's character in The Karate Kid , and Prince. "My favorite T. Heads video, the most fun to make," Harrison recalled in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads . "I always wondered what Prince thought of it." The rest of the band also appears in various costumes.
The video is set in a 1960s ambienced cabaret bar, where a frantic series of unannounced performers lip sync to the song, imitating such singers as Madonna and Prince as disjointed images play across a wall of video screens behind them. Byrne wrote about this scene:
The song itself becomes a vehicle that can say anything they want it to. Some gestures and movements are obviously derived from well-known sources: television shows ... movies ... and, most recently, rock videos. Odd to think that some lip-synchers are imitating characters in videos, who are really musicians imitating other characters. [5]
Actor John Goodman, prior to his fame in the sitcom Roseanne , appeared in both the film and MTV versions of the video. Goodman was also featured on the B-side's "People Like Us", a song that also appeared in the film.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Wild Wild Life" | 3:39 |
2. | "People Like Us" (movie version) | 4:23 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Wild Wild Life" (extended mix) | 5:30 |
2. | "Wild Wild Life" | 3:39 |
3. | "People Like Us" (movie version) | 4:23 |
Chart (1986) | Peak position |
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Australia (Kent Music Report) [6] | 13 |
Dutch Singles Chart [7] | 42 |
Irish Singles Chart [8] | 9 |
New Zealand Singles Chart [9] | 2 |
Swiss Singles Chart [10] | 20 |
UK Singles Chart [11] | 43 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [12] | 25 |
Chart (1986) | Position |
---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report) [13] | 92 |
The song was covered by Wailing Souls for the 1993 movie Cool Runnings .
The song was used in the trailers for Brother Bear , [14] Over the Hedge , [15] and Zookeeper , as well as the beginning of the 2006 animated film Open Season , for which it was included on the film's soundtrack. It was also used in the 2014 film United Passions as well as the aforementioned True Stories .
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