Album · Talking Heads
True Stories by Talking Heads
True Stories is an album by Talking Heads, released in 1986. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 72 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Wild Wild Life”, on 39 lists with a best position of #4.
True Stories, Talking Heads' seventh studio album, came out on Sire in 1986, arriving just ahead of David Byrne's film of the same name, a satirical musical comedy the record is tied to. The four of them produced it themselves: Byrne singing and playing guitar, Chris Frantz on drums, Tina Weymouth on bass and Jerry Harrison on guitar and keyboards.
It sits between Little Creatures, the band's best-selling album, and Naked, the worldbeat-flavored record that turned out to be their last, and it keeps to the tidy, pop-leaning side of Talking Heads. The art-school nerves are still twitching under the surface, but the grooves are clean, the arrangements uncluttered and the choruses friendly enough to whistle. "Wild Wild Life" is the one that stuck, a goofy, bouncing sing-along with Byrne at his most wide-eyed, and "Love for Sale" and "Puzzlin' Evidence" filled out the part of the record rock radio kept coming back to. Byrne walked away from the band in 1991.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from True Stories on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wild Wild Life | 39 | #4 | – | 1986–2023 | |
| 2 | Love For Sale | 17 | #70 | – | 1986–2014 | |
| 3 | Puzzlin' Evidence | 16 | #46 | – | 1986–2014 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.