On This Day, Sept. 16, 1977: Talking Heads release their debut album

On This Day, Sept. 16, 1977 …

Talking Heads released their debut album, Talking Heads: 77, featuring the now-classic “Psycho Killer,” as well as “Uh-Oh,” “Love Comes to Town” and “Don’t Worry About the Government.”

Jon Bon Jovi’s cousin Tony Bongiovi was credited as one of the album’s producers, though the band disliked him and later claimed the engineer, Ed Stasium, did most of the work.

While the album never got higher than #97 on the Billboard 200 chart, Rolling Stone included it on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003.

Talking Heads went on to release seven more studio albums, their last being 1988’s Naked. They also released the soundtrack to their critically acclaimed documentary Stop Making Sense, which spent 119 weeks on the Billboard 200.

In November 2024, Talking Heads celebrated their debut album with the release of a new box set, Talking Heads: 77 (Super Deluxe Edition), featuring a remaster of the original release, bonus material and live recordings.