Talk:Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song)

Edward Hirsch
I just came across a poem by Edward Hirsch- "Commuters". It's about a guy coming home from work, asking himself 'Is this me?' and the streets seem to fill up with water. "This isn't me sitting in this car Feeling as if I were about to drown". Hirsch was born in 1950. I wonder if anyone else sees similarities and thinks this peom might have been part of the inspiration for the song. -lonepeakgeek —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lonepeakgeek (talk • contribs) 21:53, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Didnt the Smashing Pumpkins do a cover of this song at one point?

Yep. Its in the article, at least as of when i checked. Oh, has anyone else run across references to this being about suicide? "Into the silent waters, after the money's gone." seems pretty indicative to me, but I don't know if its worth mentioning. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.71.82.82 (talk) 23:46, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

I seem to remember a song by Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention from the dim and distant past (1967?) that sounded very similar to Once in a Lifetime. Has anyone else picked up on this or have I just lost the plot? Drumheadbum (talk) 09:52, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

There was a short-running TV show in the late 90s that used the song for their opening credits. I don't remember the name of the show, but the hook was that it followed its characters through three time-periods - a contemporary present, 20? years in the past, and 20 years in the future - cutting between the periods within episodes, playing off of the "How did I get here" and "Same as it ever was lyrics". It might have been set in Boston. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.33.207.94 (talk) 21:49, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Unique rhythm
Something that I thought would be notable about this song is how the rhythm changes between verse and chorus: the bar is counted from a different place in each, resulting in a "missing" half-bar in each verse->chorus or chorus->verse transition. This is very unusual indeed for a pop hit. I'm not familiar with the published sources about the song, but it would be surprising if this distinctive feature of it were not mentioned somewhere. MartinPoulter (talk) 11:44, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Bassheads and Sampling Legacy
Should something about the legacy of the track being sampled in other songs and tracks be mentioned? For example British house duo Bassheads originally sampled "Once in a Lifetime" in particular along with a diverse range of artists including Afrika Bambaataa, The Osmonds and Pink Floyd for their 1991 single "Is There Anybody Out There?" which reached number 5 in the UK Singles Chart.

The use of this sample by Bassheads was quite prominent as is worthy of mention and I'm fairly sure a number of other tracks have been made over the years sampling "Once in a Lifetime" which may be worthy of mention as much as the cover versions have been. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.79.222.87 (talk) 07:14, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Requested move 11 April 2022

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: not moved. Colin M (talk) 21:49, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song) → Once in a Lifetime (song) – WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. By far the most notable song by this name. Popcornfud (talk) 22:40, 11 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Oppose per WP:PDAB. Even though the Talking Heads song is quite notable, we don't do partial primary topics except in VERY RARE exceptions. Paintspot Infez (talk) 02:43, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes - I think this ought to qualify for one of those exceptions, per the list of examples on WP:PDABLIST, such as Poker Face (song). Popcornfud (talk) 13:07, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Oppose per WP:INCOMPLETEDAB: There are too many songs with this title that are discussed on Wikipedia. The dab page lists more than 20 of them, and several of them are clearly notable and extensively discussed on Wikipedia. —&#8288;&#8202;&#8288;BarrelProof (talk) 18:43, 12 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Oppose per above. Gonnym (talk) 08:04, 13 April 2022 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Oppose per WP:PDAB. 162 etc. (talk) 22:22, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

"My god, what have I done?" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect My god, what have I done? and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 August 13 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. signed,Rosguill talk 20:42, 13 August 2022 (UTC)