Heaven (Talking Heads song)

"Heaven"
Song

Jerry Harrison and David Byrne (right), the song-writers, performing in August 1978 at Jay's Longhorn Bar, Minneapolis'

"Heaven" is a song by the American new wave band Talking Heads from their 1979 album Fear of Music. The song has been called "the calm after their unusual ominous storm" by AllMusic as well as something "psychologists would certainly have a field day with" by journalist Ian Gittins.

Dave Bell, writing for quarterly UK magazine Ceasefire, argued that the song "epitomises "pop as Samuel Beckett might write it: tedious, beautiful and desperate".

Cover versions

• k.d. lang recorded a version of this song with The Siss Boom Bang for their 2011 album Sing It Loud.
• The song was covered by Q Lazzarus and used in the soundtrack of the Jonathan Demme film. Philadelphia. Demme previously directed the Talking Heads' concert film Stop Making Sense, also featuring this song.
• The song was covered by Icehouse frontman Iva Davies.
• The song was covered by Widespread Panic on their album Space Wrangler and often played during live shows.
• The song is covered live by White Lies.
• Voxtrot does a cover of this song.
• The song appears on Simply Red's 1985 debut album Picture Book.
• Greg Keelor covered this song on his first solo album, Gone.
• The band Duels covered this song as a 'Little Monster'.
• In 2004, Eric Burdon played a jazzy version of the song for his album My Secret Life. It was also featured on his live album Athens Traffic Live (2005).
• In 2008, the band Bell X1 covered the song at a session with Paste magazine.
• On the soundtrack to the 2009 film My Sister's Keeper, Jimmy Scott plays a stripped down version of the song. It is also the title track to his 1996 album, "Heaven".
• German musician Joachim Witt released a cover version with German lyrics called "Der Weg in die Ferne (Heaven)" on his album Silberblick in 1980.
• German indie rock band Kolossale Jugend (de:Kolossale Jugend) covered it on their debut album Heile Heile Boches in 1989.
• A solo version of the song was released in 2009 by Paul Dempsey, lead singer and guitarist from Something for Kate.

In popular culture

• The song is played at the conclusion of the 30 for 30 film June 17, 1994.

• The song provides the title for Heaven Is a Place, the second season finale of the TV series Halt and Catch Fire.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics