Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song)

"Once in a Lifetime"
Cover art of UK 7-inch and 12-inch vinyl singles
Single by Talking Heads
from the album Remain in Light
B-side	"Seen and Not Seen" "Crosseyed and Painless" "Listening Wind"
Released	January 1981[1]
Recorded	July–August 1980
Studio	Compass Point, Nassau Sigma Sound, New York City
Genre	New wave,[2][3] rock,[4] art pop[5][6]
Length	4:19
Label	Sire
Songwriter(s)	David Byrne Brian Eno Chris Frantz Jerry Harrison Tina Weymouth
Producer(s)	Brian Eno
Talking Heads singles chronology
"Crosseyed and Painless" (1980) "Once in a Lifetime" (1981) "Houses in Motion" (1980)
"And She Was" (1985) "Once in a Lifetime (Live)" (1985) "Wild Wild Life" (1986)
Alternative release
A-side label of US vinyl single
Music video
"Once in a Lifetime" on YouTube
Audio
"Once in a Lifetime" on YouTube

"Once in a Lifetime" is a song by the American new wave band Talking Heads, produced and cowritten by Brian Eno. It was released in January 1981 through Sire Records as the lead single from the band's fourth studio album, Remain in Light (1980).

Eno and Talking Heads developed "Once in a Lifetime" through extensive jams, inspired by Afrobeat musicians such as Fela Kuti. David Byrne's vocals were inspired by preachers delivering sermons, with lyrics about existential crisis and the unconscious. The music video, directed by Byrne and Toni Basil, has Byrne dancing erratically over footage of religious rituals.

"Once in a Lifetime" was certified gold in the UK in 2021. A live version, taken from the 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, charted in 1986 on the Billboard Hot 100. NPR named "Once in a Lifetime" one of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll", and Rolling Stone placed it at number 28 on its 2021 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".