Talking Heads, 'Once in a Lifetime' (1980) | The 30 All-TIME Best Music Videos | TIME.com (original) (raw)

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The Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” video is so odd, so ’80s, so David Byrne, you can’t look away. Thirty years later, it’s still an iconic video for a band that was never commercially successful or had huge radio hits. But when MTV debuted a year after its 1980 release, “Once in a Lifetime” became one of its most rotated and popular clips, giving many music fans their first look at Byrne’s brilliant bizarreness. In the video, the singer dances around like a demented marionette, jerking his arms and crouching into a ball, then swimming through a fake blue sea. He’s joined by a chorus of Byrnes in the background who mimic him (or is he mimicking them?). The video was later exhibited at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.