Rhino Records has set an Aug. 17 release date for two retrospectives celebrating the work of influential quartet Talking Heads. The label’s revamp of the live package “The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads” will mark the first CD issue of a fan-favorite release from 1982, while “The Best of Talking Heads” is the group’s first U.S. single-disc greatest-hits set.
Both titles were assembled with the involvement of all of the band’s members — David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Franz and Jerry Harrison.
Originally a double-vinyl set, “The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads” has been buffed up to a two-disc release with the addition of 13 previously unreleased live tracks spanning 1977-1981. Also appended to the album are three cuts from a 1979 promotional-only live disc — The Girls Want To Be With the Girls,” an early version of “Drugs” titled “Electricity” and “Found a Job.”
“The Best of Talking Heads” is an 18-track collection of the band’s most popular tunes, including “Psycho Killer,” “Burning Down the House” and “And She Was.”
Last fall, Rhino released the three-CD, one-DVD box set “Once in a Lifetime,” including songs from throughout the band’s career as well as all its videos. A 1992 Sire/Warner Bros. compilation, “Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand in the Vaseline,” surveyed each of the band’s studio albums across two discs and added five then-previously unreleased songs.
In related news, former Heads frontman Byrne will follow a July European tour with another North American run. He is touring behind his latest album, “Grown Backwards,” released in April by Nonesuch.
Source billboard.com.
