Talking Heads - "Burning Down the House" LIVE from the 3 (Stop Making Sense) shows December 1983.

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Description

Stop Making Sense is a 1984 American concert film featuring a live performance by the American rock band Talking Heads. Directed by Jonathan Demme, it was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December 1983, as the group was touring to promote their new album Speaking in Tongues.

"Burning Down the House" is a song by new wave band Talking Heads, released in July 1983 as the first single from their fifth studio album "Speaking in Tongues"

"Burning Down the House" is a new wave, funk, and art rock song.

"This song started from a jam," says bassist Tina Weymouth in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "Chris Frantz had just been to see Parliament-Funkadelic in its full glory at Madison Square Garden, and he was really hyped. During the jam, he kept yelling 'Burn down the house!' which was a P-Funk audience chant, and David Byrne dug the line, changing it to the finished version, 'Burning down the house'." (Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic joined Talking Heads' live incarnation.)

Chart performance..
"Burning Down the House" became Talking Heads' highest-charting hit single in North America, becoming their only top ten single on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 9, as well as reaching the top ten in Canada.
Despite this success, the song was not a hit outside of North America.
In Australia it peaked at a modest No. 94, while in the UK, where Talking Heads would release 14 charting singles, it failed to chart.