Once in a Lifetime

might be my favorite song

Here is what might possibly be my single favorite song in the world, and my first-choice karaoke song.

“Once in a Lifetime” was not a commercial hit, but it’s the Talking Heads song that has saturated the collective unconscious the most deeply, and a hundred years from now, it’s the one that people will be most likely to still know. According to Secondhand Songs, it’s the second-most-covered Talking Heads song after “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)”. It has been translated in Spanish, Greek, and Wolof, and has been sung by everyone from Donald Trump to Kermit the Frog.

According to WhoSampled.com, it’s also by far the most-sampled Talking Heads song. I keep seeing books whose titles reference it, including You May Ask Yourself by Dalton Conley, Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo, and This Is Not My Beautiful Life by Victoria Fedden. And I’ve seen it on a few tattoos too.

Why? What about this weird and nonsensical song is so compelling? How did it burrow so deeply into our collective unconscious? Before I try to answer any of that, I’ll talk through the song, the writing process, and the production.