The Talking Heads’ 1984 live record and concert film “Stop Making Sense” was a monumental success for its time. Upon its release, the film generated $12 million at the box office. While that is nothing compared to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour box office success ($261.7 million), we cannot deny the impact the film had on recorded concert films and documentaries in the music industry.
For the 40th anniversary of the film, A24 is creating a tribute album with different artists covering tracks played in the concert soundtrack, which is made up of the Talking Heads’ greatest and most iconic songs. The record, entitled “Everyone’s Getting Involved,” reportedly has 16 tracks that includes artists like Paramore, Miley Cyrus, Lorde, girl in red, The National, The Linda Lindas, Kevin Abstract, Toro y Moi, Jean Dawson, Chicano Batman, amongst many other artists and contributors.
“Burning the House Down”
On January 10th, A24 released a promo-video that mimicked the trailer for the original “Stop Making Sense” trailer, featuring Paramore and some Talking Heads references and paraphernalia.
The trailer teases a new Paramore song to be featured. It was teased on Paramore’s social channels and promoted by A24 in a rather cryptic way, leaving fans wondering what Paramore and A24 had in store.
Then, on January 31st of this year, Paramore released the first track, “Burning the House Down.” You can stream “Burning the House Down” on all platforms:
Following the songs release was a Behind the Scenes video that showed the process of recording the song that featured the band as well as Reggie Watts, Pam Autori, Kayla Graninger, and Paramore’s recording and touring members Brian Robert Jones and Joey Howard.
In celebration of Record Store Day on April 20th, Paramore and David Bryne (Talking Head’s singer) collaborated to give fans an exclusive chance to have a Paramore and Talking Heads vinyl. The limited edition 12” vinyl with David Bryne’s cover of “Hard Times” by Paramore on the side A and Paramore’s cover of “Burning the House Down” on the side B. And now David Bryne’s cover is available for streaming on all services along with the Record Store Day vinyl.
Other Releases
On February 28th, Teezo Touchdown released his cover of “Making Flippy Floppy” and on March 28th, Lorde released her cover of “Take Me to the River.” Both releases generally flew under the radar because of other highly anticipated releases like Lizzie McAlpine, Twenty One Pilots, Conan Grey, Ariana Grande, and many more.
You can stream “Making Floppy Floppy” on all platforms:
As well as, Lorde’s cover of “Take Me to the River” on all platforms:
As of April 24th, the fourth single, and likely final, was released. The 14th track off of the record, “Girlfriend is Better” covered by girl in red. Similar to the last two singles, during this competitive and highly anticipated music release year, this release also slipped through the cracks.
You can now stream “Girlfriend is Better” on all platforms:
Official Album Announcement
Two days later on April 26th, an official release date for the entire tribute record was announced. The record will be out in full on Friday, May 17th through A24.
Full track and artist list:
01. Psycho Killer – Miley Cyrus
02. Heaven – The National
03. Thank You for Sending Me an Angel – Blondshell
04. Found a Job – The Linda Lindas
05. Slippery People – El Mato a un Policia Motorizado
06. Burning Down the House – Paramore
07. Life During Wartime – Dj Tunez
08. Making Flippy Floppy – Teezo Touchdown
09. Swamp – Jean Dawson
10. What a Day That Was – The Cavemen.
11. This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) – BADBADNOTGOOD (Feat. Norah Jones)
12. Once in a Lifetime – Kevin Abstract
13. Genius of Love – Toro y Moi (feat Brijean)
14. Girlfriend is Better – girl in red
15. Take Me to the River – Lorde
16. Crosseyed and Painless – Chicano Batman (Feat. Money Mark)
And a vinyl pre-order is also available on A24’s website:
Or you can stream on all platforms on May 17th here.
Excitement is already building around this monumental release. With the creation of new versions of iconic tracks from the Talking Heads, this will give younger fans and generations the chance to appreciate the same tracks with a breath of new life into the songs by a diverse group of artists.
