"This Must Be the Place" is a song by New Wave band Talking Heads

Talking Heads

Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...

, released as the second single from their fifth album Speaking in Tongues. The lyrics were written by David Byrne

David Byrne (musician)

David Byrne is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography,...

, and the music was written by Byrne and the other members of the band, Chris Frantz

Chris Frantz

Chris Frantz is an American musician and record producer. He was the drummer for both Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club.-Career:...

, Tina Weymouth

Tina Weymouth

Martina Michèle "Tina" Weymouth is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the New Wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club .-Profile:Weymouth is of French heritage on her mother's side. Weymouth was a cheerleader in high school...

 and Jerry Harrison

Jerry Harrison

Jerry Harrison is an American songwriter, musician and producer...

.

Composition

In the "Self Interview" on the DVD of the concert film Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense is a concert movie featuring Talking Heads live on stage. 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. The movie is notable for...

, Byrne admits that it is a love song, a topic he tends to avoid because it is "kinda big". He also said of the song:

"That's a love song made up almost completely of non sequiturs, phrases that may have a strong emotional resonance but don't have any narrative qualities. It's a real honest kind of love song. I don't think I've ever done a real love song before. Mine always had a sort of reservation, or a twist. I tried to write one that wasn't corny, that didn't sound stupid or lame the way many do. I think I succeeded; I was pretty happy with that."

According to the Stop Making Sense commentary track, the title "Naive Melody" refers to the music. On the track, the guitar part and the bass part are doing the same thing throughout the whole song. According to David Byrne, many professional musicians would not play a song written in that fashion, and that is what makes the melody naive. Byrne played the lead keyboard solo.

Stop Making Sense

The song is featured in Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense is a concert movie featuring Talking Heads live on stage. 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. The movie is notable for...

(1984), a concert film

Concert film

A concert movie, or concert film, is a type of documentary film, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by a musician ....

 featuring the Talking Heads. Throughout the Stop Making Sense version, Byrne and his bandmates perform by a standard lamp, while close-up images of various body parts are projected onto a screen behind them. When the song reaches a bridge, the musicians step back and Byrne dances with the lamp, a reference to Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...

's similar dance with a coat-rack in the film Royal Wedding

Royal Wedding

Royal Wedding is a 1951 Hollywood musical comedy film known for Fred Astaire's dance performance on a ceiling and another with a coat rack. The story is set in London in 1947 at the time of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and stars Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah...

.

The Stop Making Sense version was released as single in 1986, peaking at #100 on the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

.

Music video

The music video depicts the band members and their session musicians watching light-hearted home movies

Home movies

A home movie is part of the motion picture filmmaking process made by amateurs, often for viewing by family and friends. When the hobby began, home movies were produced on photographic film, but accessibility of video production with video cameras and low cost data storage devices has made the...

, before going down into the basement and playing their instruments.

Covers

The song was covered live by the Montreal-based band Arcade Fire, and is featured as the B-side to their single "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

Neighborhood 3 (Power Out)

"Neighborhood #3 " is an indie rock song by Canadian rock band Arcade Fire. It was the third single released from the band's debut album, Funeral....

". Their version features David Byrne

David Byrne

David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...

 on guest vocals.

The song has also been covered by Hotel X

Hotel X

Hotel X is a world music/jazz group founded in 1992 in Richmond, Virginia by Tim Harding and Ron T. Curry as a setting to explore electric bass duets. Hotel X was quickly joined by a host of Richmond, Virginia underground music scene veterans and released six albums on the Los Angeles based SST...

, Shawn Colvin

Shawn Colvin

Shawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...

, Perpetual Groove

Perpetual Groove

Perpetual Groove is an American jam band that originated in 1997 in Savannah, Georgia. PGroove incorporates a blend of traditional Southern rock, funk, jazzy improvisation, indie rock and synth loops...

, MGMT

MGMT

MGMT is an American alternative rock band founded by Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden. After the release of their first album, the members of their live band, Matthew Asti, James Richardson and Will Berman, joined the core band in the studio...

, Mysteries of Life, Animal Liberation Orchestra

Animal Liberation Orchestra

Animal Liberation Orchestra is an American musical group, currently signed on Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records label. They have released three full length albums...

, The String Cheese Incident, Gunnar Madsen

Gunnar Madsen

Gunnar Madsen is an American composer and vocalist. He was the founder and leader of The Bobs before leaving the group in 1991, and has released several albums as a solo artist since then.-Biography:...

, Counting Crows

Counting Crows

Counting Crows is an American rock band originating from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1991, the group gained popularity following the release of its debut album in 1993, August and Everything After, which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones"...

, the Ryan Montbleau Band, Miles Fisher

Miles Fisher

Miles Fisher is an American film and television actor and musician. Born as James Leslie Miles Fisher, he was raised in Dallas, Texas until his family moved to Washington, D.C. He was educated at the St. Albans School in Washington, D.C...

, Tim Bowness

Tim Bowness

Tim Bowness is a singer/songwriter primarily known for his work as part of the band No-Man, a long-term project formed in 1987 with Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson.-Music career:...

/Samuel Smiles

Samuel Smiles (band)

Samuel Smiles were an intermittently active English ambient-folk band...

, Weatherbox

Weatherbox

Weatherbox is a band from San Diego, California, led by ex-Mister Valentine and My American Heart member Brian Warren.-Discography:Weatherbox was signed to Doghouse Records, on which they released their debut album American Art on May 8, 2007 and is now signed to Youth Conspiracy Records, which...

, Youthless, Kyp Malone

Kyp Malone

David Kyp Joel Malone is a multi-instrumentalist and member of the bands TV on the Radio and Iran.Malone formed Iran with film director/singer/songwriter Aaron Aites in the year 2000...

, Cornmeal

Cornmeal (band)

Cornmeal is a roots and bluegrass jamband from Chicago, Illinois. Formed over 10 years ago. Heavily influenced by American roots and folk music....

, and Logger and the Fatties.

In popular culture

This song is featured twice in the Oliver Stone movie Wall Street, playing over a scene in which Bud Fox, the protagonist, decorates his upscale apartment, and again over the closing credits. The song re-appeared in the 2010 sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, once again over the closing credits. Shawn Colvin

Shawn Colvin

Shawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...

's version was featured on the movie Wordplay

Wordplay (film)

Wordplay is a 2006 documentary film directed by Patrick Creadon. It features Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, crossword constructor Merl Reagle, and many other noted crossword solvers and constructors...

(2006). The song appeared in TV series Northern Exposure

Northern Exposure

Northern Exposure is an American television series that ran on CBS from 1990 to 1995, with a total of 110 episodes.-Overview:The series was given a pair of consecutive Peabody Awards: in 1991–92 for the show's "depict[ion] in a comedic and often poetic way, [of] the cultural clash between a...

, and appears in the 2007 film Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl is a 2007 American-Canadian comedy-drama film written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Craig Gillespie. It stars Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner and Patricia Clarkson...

as well as the 2011 film

2011 in film

The year 2011 is notable for containing the release of the most film sequels in a single year, at 27 sequels. The following tables list films that are in production or have completed production and will be released in the United States and Canada at some point in 2011.- Highest-grossing films :...

, Crazy, Stupid, Love

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Crazy, Stupid, Love. is a 2011 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, written by Dan Fogelman, and starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei, Analeigh Tipton, and Kevin Bacon...

. The Colvin cover of the song closed the Pilot episode of the TV show Judging Amy

Judging Amy

Judging Amy is an American television drama that was telecast from September 19, 1999, through May 3, 2005, on CBS-TV. This TV series starred Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly...

. The song is also on the He's Just Not That into You

He's Just Not That into You (film)

He's Just Not That Into You is a 2009 American romantic comedy film directed by Ken Kwapis, based on the self-help book of the same name by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, which in turn was inspired by a line of dialogue in Sex and the City...

soundtrack (released January 2009). The 2011 film

2011 in film

The year 2011 is notable for containing the release of the most film sequels in a single year, at 27 sequels. The following tables list films that are in production or have completed production and will be released in the United States and Canada at some point in 2011.- Highest-grossing films :...

, This Must Be the Place

This Must Be the Place (film)

This Must Be the Place is a 2011 drama film directed by Paolo Sorrentino, written by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello. It stars Sean Penn and Frances McDormand...

starring Sean Penn

Sean Penn

Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...

 is named for the song.

Charts

Original version

Chart (1983)	Peak position
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	51
US Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	62

Live version

Chart (1986)	Peak position
UK Singles Chart	100