Heaven (Talking Heads song)

Jerry Harrison and David Byrne (right), the songwriters, 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^[1] as well as something "psychologists would certainly have a field day with" by journalist Ian Gittins.^[2]

Dave Bell, writing for quarterly UK magazine Ceasefire, argued that the song "epitomises "pop as Samuel Beckett might write it: tedious, beautiful and desperate".^[3]

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.^[4]
• The song is covered live by White Lies.
• Voxtrot does a cover of this song.^[5]
• 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".^[6]
• 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.

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics