Road to Nowhere

"Road to Nowhere"
Single by Talking Heads
from the album 'Little Creatures'
B-side	"Give Me Back My Name"
Released	1985
Format	7" single
Recorded	October 1984-March 1985
Genre	New Wave
Length	4:19
Label	Sire Records
Writer(s)	David Byrne/Chris Frantz/Jerry Harrison/Tina Weymouth
Producer	Talking Heads
Talking Heads singles chronology
"The Lady Don't Mind" (1985) "Road to Nowhere" (1985) "And She Was" (1985)

"Road to Nowhere" is a song by Talking Heads, from the 1985 album Little Creatures. It also appeared on Best of Talking Heads, Sand in the Vaseline: Popular Favorites, the Once in a Lifetime box set and the Brick box set. The song was released as a single in 1985 and reached number 25 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and number 6 in the British and German singles chart. It also made #8 on the Dutch Top 40.

The video, released to promote the single, was directed by David Byrne and Stephen R. Johnson and features the band and various objects revolving, as if in their own "road to nowhere," and it was nominated for "Best Video of the Year" at the MTV Video Music Awards 1986.

According to the sleeve of Talking Heads compilation Once in a Lifetime, Byrne added the choral intro after deciding the song in itself was embarrassingly simplistic and monotonous.

In popular culture

"Road to Nowhere" is heard during the ending of the 1985 movie The Peanut Butter Solution and the 1989 film Little Monsters. It is also featured in the 1994 film Reality Bites. It was featured on an advertisement for the 2006 final of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. It is also heard at the end of the 2008 film Religulous.

The protagonist of Gex: Enter the Gecko sings a brief line of the song during gameplay.

The song also got some play on comedic television and radio shows when the "Bridge to Nowhere" scandal in Alaska surfaced in 2005.

Portuguese musician João Coração adapted part of "Road to Nowhere" in the last minute of his song "Muda que muda" from the album with the same name. What is heard is a musical parody of the verses "We're on a road to nowhere / Come on inside" translated to Portuguese.

Cover versions

• The Kalamazoo, Michigan based bluegrass band Greensky Bluegrass recorded a version of this tune on their 2007 release Live at Bell's.

• The British Indie Rock band Editors covered the song for a Napster Session and released it as a B-Side to the re-issue of their single "Blood".

• The French band Nouvelle Vague recorded a bossa nova cover for their 2009 album 3.

• The song was featured in the 2008 documentary Young@Heart.

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