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| "Wild Wild Life" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byTalking Heads | ||||
| from the albumTrue Stories | ||||
| B-side | "People Like Us" (movie version) | |||
| Released | August 1986 (1986-08)[1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length |
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| Label | Sire | |||
| Songwriter | David Byrne | |||
| Producers |
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| Talking Heads singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Wild Wild Life" onYouTube | ||||
"Wild Wild Life" is a song by Americanrock bandTalking Heads, released in August 1986 as the lead single from their seventhstudio album,True Stories (1986). It was the band's third and last top-40 hit on the USBillboard Hot 100 chart. It was also successful worldwide, peaking at number two in New Zealand and number nine in Ireland.
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 theMTVVideo Music Awards in 1987. Taken from the filmTrue Stories, with some additional content, it includes band memberJerry Harrison parodyingBilly Idol,Kid Creole,Ralph Macchio's character inThe Karate Kid, andPrince. "My favorite T. Heads video, the most fun to make," Harrison recalled in theliner notes ofOnce 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 ambiencedcabaret bar, where a frantic series of unannounced performerslip sync to the song, imitating such singers asMadonna andPrince 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]
ActorJohn Goodman, prior to his fame in the sitcomRoseanne, 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. ComedianSam Kinison also makes a cameo appearance.
| 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 |
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
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The song was used in the trailers forBrother Bear,[19]Over the Hedge,[20] andZookeeper, as well as the beginning of the 2006 animated filmOpen Season, for which it was included on the film's soundtrack. It was also used in the 2014 filmUnited Passions as well as the aforementionedTrue Stories.[citation needed]
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| Singles |
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| Other songs | |
| Filmography | |
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| Related articles | |
