“Road to Nowhere” by Talking Heads

Talking Heads turned the end of the world into a parade with "Road to Nowhere", the 1985 single from Little Creatures. David Byrne, who wrote it, has said he was after a resigned, even cheerful look at death and the apocalypse, and the band produced it themselves. The song proper runs on just two chords, so Byrne, a little sheepish about that, bolted on a gospel-choir opening with a few more, sung a cappella by a crowd of guest voices.

Then it marches. Chris Frantz stomps out the beat, Tina Weymouth plays bass synthesizer, Jerry Harrison works the keys, and the guests pile on: Jimmy MacDonell's accordion, Andrew Cader's washboard, Steve Scales on congas and bongos, and Lenny Pickett's sax, until the whole thing sounds like a bayou hoedown headed cheerfully for oblivion. It went top 10 in eight other countries.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.