"Psycho Killer" is a song by American rock band Talking Heads, released on their debut studio album Talking Heads: 77 (1977). The group first performed it as the Artistics in 1974.[6][7]

The band also recorded an acoustic version of the song featuring Arthur Russell on cello.[8] In the liner notes for Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads (1992), Jerry Harrison wrote of the B-side of the single, "I`m glad we persuaded Tony [Bongiovi] and Lance [Quinn] that the version with the cellos shouldn`t be the only one."

The band`s "signature debut hit"[9] features lyrics that seem to represent the thoughts of a serial killer. Originally written and performed as a ballad,[10] "Psycho Killer" became what AllMusic calls a "deceptively funky new wave/no wave song" with "an insistent rhythm, and one of the most memorable, driving basslines in rock & roll."[1]

"Psycho Killer" was the only song from the album to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 92. It reached number 32 on the Triple J Hottest 100 in 1989, and peaked at number 11 on the Dutch singles chart in 1977. The song is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame`s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[11]

Lyrics

The song was composed near the beginning of the band`s career and prototype versions were performed onstage as early as December 1975.[12] When it was finally completed and released as a single in December 1977, "Psycho Killer" became instantly associated in popular culture with the contemporaneous Son of Sam serial killings (July 1976 – July 1977).[13][14] Although the band always insisted that the song had no inspiration from the notorious events, the single`s release date was "eerily timely"[12] and marked by a "macabre synchronicity".[14]

According to the preliminary lyric sheets copied onto the 2006 remaster of Talking Heads: 77, the song started off as a semi-narrative of the killer actually committing murders. In the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads, David Byrne says:

When I started writing this (I got help later), I imagined Alice Cooper doing a Randy Newman–type ballad. Both the Joker and Hannibal Lecter were much more fascinating than the good guys. Everybody sort of roots for the bad guys in movies.

The bridge lyrics are in French, as is the prominent chorus line "Qu`est-ce que c`est?" ("What is this/it?"). The bridge lyrics are:

The French lyrics were supplied by Tina Weymouth. According to Chris Frantz, "I told David that Tina`s mother is French and that they always spoke French in the home. Tina agreed to do it and just sat down and did it in a little over an hour. I wrote a couple of more verses, and within a few hours, `Psycho Killer` was more or less done."[15]

Later releases

Talking Heads performed the song on the BBC2 television show The Old Grey Whistle Test on January 31, 1978. The performance was later released on a DVD compilation of performances from the show.[16]

A live version recorded in 1977 for radio broadcast was released on The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads in 1982, featuring an additional verse not heard in the studio version, and the later CD release included a second, later live version from the Remain in Light tour. In 1984, another live version was included on the soundtrack for the band`s concert movie Stop Making Sense. The film opens with Byrne alone onstage, announcing "`Hi. I`ve got a tape I want to play`...[and] strumming maniacally like Richie Havens",[1] playing an acoustic version of "Psycho Killer", backed only by a Roland TR-808 drum machine whose sound appears to be issuing from a boombox.

The song also appears on their 1992 compilation album Popular Favorites 1976–1992: Sand in the Vaseline and on another compilation album, The Best of Talking Heads, in 2004.

Personnel

Talking Heads

• David Byrne – guitar, lead vocals
• Chris Frantz – drums
• Jerry Harrison – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Tina Weymouth – bass guitar

Additional personnel

• Arthur Russell – cello (Acoustic Version)

Charts

Certifications

Legacy

The song has been recorded in cover versions by many bands and musicians including Velvet Revolver,[25] James Hall,[26] the Bobs (a cappella group),[27] Victoria Vox,[28] Wet Leg,[29] Duran Duran featuring Victoria De Angelis,[30] Miley Cyrus,[31][32] and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at the 2009 BBC Proms.[33]

Massachusetts-based band the Fools parodied the song and entitled it "Psycho Chicken"; it was included as a bonus record with their major-label debut album Sold Out in 1980.[34] Ice-T says that "Psycho Killer" was a starting influence for his band Body Count`s controversial song "Cop Killer".[35] Singer Selena Gomez samples the bassline on her 2017 single "Bad Liar."[36] A Talking Heads tribute band based in Baltimore, active since 2011, call themselves the Psycho Killers.[37]