"Psycho Killer" is a song by American New Wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 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...

 from their 1977 album Talking Heads: 77

Talking Heads: 77

Talking Heads: 77 is the debut album by Talking Heads. It peaked at #97 in the Billboard Pop Albums chart and the single "Psycho Killer" made it to #92. In 2003, the album was ranked #290 on Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list...

, 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,...

, 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:...

 and 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...

. The band's "signature debut hit" features lyrics which seem to represent the thoughts of a serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

. Allmusic calls it a "deceptively funky New Wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

/No Wave

No Wave

No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...

 song ... [with] an insistent rhythm, and one of the most memorable, driving bassline

Bassline

A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...

s in rock & roll."

"Psycho Killer" was the only song from the album to appear on the Billboard Pop Singles

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...

 chart, peaking at number 92. It placed 32nd on the Triple J Hottest 100 in 1989

Triple J Hottest 100, 1989

The 1989 Triple J Hottest 100 was the first yearly poll of the most popular songs, according to listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J. From 1989 to 1991, listeners could vote for songs released in any year.-Full list:...

, and peaked at #11 on the Dutch singles chart

Dutch Top 40

The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...

 in 1977.

Lyrics

According to the preliminary lyric sheets copied onto the 2006 remaster of Talking Heads: 77, the song started off as a semi-narrative of the killer actually committing murders. Byrne has said of the song:
The bridge

Bridge (music)

In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section...

 lyrics are in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, as is the prominent chorus line "Qu'est-ce que c'est ?" ("What is this/it?"). The bridge lyrics are:

Ce que j'ai fait ce soir-là

Ce qu'elle a dit ce soir-là

Réalisant mon espoir

Je me lance vers la gloire... OK

What I did, that evening

What she said, that evening

Fulfilling my hope

Headlong I go for glory... OK

Later releases

A live version was released on The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads

The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads

The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is a double live album by Talking Heads, originally released in 1982. The first album featured the original quartet in recordings from 1977 and 1979, and the second album the expanded ten-piece lineup that toured in 1980 and 1981...

in 1982 and the later CD release included a second, later live version from the Remain in Light

Remain in Light

Remain in Light is the fourth studio album by American New Wave band Talking Heads, released on 8 October 1980 on Sire Records. It was recorded at locations in the Bahamas and the United States between July and August 1980 and was produced by the quartet's long-time collaborator...

 tour. In 1984 later, another live version was included on the soundtrack for Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense (album)

Stop Making Sense is a live 1984 album by Talking Heads, the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The original release of the album features only nine of the songs from the movie, many of them heavily edited. The album spent over two years on the Billboard 200 chart...

, the band's concert movie

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...

. The film opens with Byrne alone onstage, announcing "'Hi. I've got a tape I want to play'...[and] strumming maniacally like Richie Havens

Richie Havens

Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...

", playing an acoustic version of "Psycho Killer", backed only by a Roland TR-808

Roland TR-808

The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer was one of the first programmable drum machines . Introduced by the Roland Corporation in early 1980, it was originally manufactured for use as a tool for studio musicians to create demos. Like earlier Roland drum machines, it does not sound very much like a real...

 drum machine

Drum machine

A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...

 whose sound appears to be issuing from a boom box.

The song also appears on their 1992 compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 Sand in the Vaseline: Popular Favorites

Sand in the Vaseline: Popular Favorites

Sand in the Vaseline: Popular Favorites is a two-disc compilation album released by Talking Heads in 1992. It contains two previously unreleased demos , two tracks new to compact disc and three newly finished songs...

and over a decade later on another compilation album, The Best of Talking Heads

The Best of Talking Heads

The Best of Talking Heads is a 2004 compilation album by Talking Heads, released by Sire/Warner Bros./Rhino, and contains in all 18 tracks, from the beginning to the end of the Talking Heads history...

.

Charts

Chart (1977)	Peak position
Dutch Singles Chart Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...	11
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...	92

Influence, and other versions

The song has been recorded in cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

s by many bands including Brand New

Brand New

Brand New is an American rock band from Long Island, New York. Formed in 2000, the band currently consists of vocalist/guitarist/lyricist Jesse Lacey, guitarist/vocalist/lyricist Vincent Accardi, bassist Garrett Tierney, drummer Brian Lane, and guitarist/keyboardist Derrick Sherman.In the late...

, The Features

The Features

The Features are an American indie rock band from Tennessee. Though they have had limited success in the United States, they have been very well received in the United Kingdom and have a very loyal following in the Southeastern United States.-Early years:...

, Julie Christensen

Julie Christensen

Julie Christensen is an American singer, born in Iowa and resident of Ojai, California. She has worked with musicians including Leonard Cohen, Todd Rundgren, Robben Ford, Iggy Pop, Public Image Limited, Van Dyke Parks, John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Steve Wynn and k.d. lang.From 1983 to 1987...

, Velvet Revolver

Velvet Revolver

Velvet Revolver is an American hard rock supergroup consisting of former Guns N' Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum, alongside Dave Kushner formerly of punk band Wasted Youth. Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland was Velvet Revolver's lead singer from their formation until...

, Bushwalla

Bushwalla

Billy "Bushwalla" Galewood is an American singer, songwriter and rapper from Cleveland, Ohio.At the age of nine, Bushwalla entered a youth theater group called "Kids on Broadway". Ten years later Billy migrated to New York City, where he studied musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic...

, James Hall

James Hall

-Actors, Entertainment, Broadcasting:* James Hall , American actor* Jamie Hall , Canadian TV producer-Authors:* James Hall , American academic* James Baker Hall , American author...

, Rab Noakes

Rab Noakes

Rab Noakes is a Scottish singer-songwriter.-Biography:He has performed with Lindisfarne, who recorded his songs "Turn a Deaf Ear" on their first album, Nicely Out of Tune, and "Together Forever" on their second, Fog on the Tyne...

, Cranial Screwtop

Cranial Screwtop

Cranial Screwtop are an English punk-influenced rock band which plays 1980s pop songs in a punk style, the only specialist covers band of its type currently in the UK. The band's sound is distinguished by their use of kazoos...

, Cage the Elephant

Cage the Elephant

Cage the Elephant is an American rock band from Bowling Green, Kentucky, that formed in mid-2006. Since their formation, the band has gained a large following in the US as well as the UK and Canada for their sound and their high-energy live performances. The band released their self-titled debut...

, Local H

Local H

Local H is an American rock duo, formed by Joe Daniels and Scott Lucas in Zion, Illinois in 1987. Local H's 1996 album, As Good as Dead, includes the top 10 hit "Bound for the Floor" Author, rock critic and Rolling Stone contributor Greg Kot and the Chicago Tribune named the band its 2008 Chicago...

, Barenaked Ladies

Barenaked Ladies

Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian alternative rock band. The band is currently composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, and Tyler Stewart. Barenaked Ladies formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, then a suburban municipality outside the City of Toronto...

 (on Buck Naked), Phish

Phish

Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 , the band's four members – Trey Anastasio , Mike Gordon , Jon Fishman , and Page McConnell Phish is an American rock band...

, Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Greenhill, Alabama, near Muscle Shoals.-Background:Almost all of Isbell's family, except his parents, were musicians, and his father was an avid music listener...

, Antiseen

Antiseen

Antiseen is an American punk rock band formed in Charlotte, North Carolina by vocalist JeffClayton and guitarist Joe Young, the sole members to have remained for the entire existence of the group...

, Richard Thompson, Faker

Faker

Faker can mean:*Someone who fakes*Faker , an Australian alternative rock band, formed in Sydney in 1996*Faker , a cartoon supervillain*Faker , a comic book...

, Moxy Früvous

Moxy Früvous

Moxy Früvous was a politically satirical folk-pop band from Thornhill, Ontario, Canada. The band was founded in 1989, and was active throughout the 1990s...

, Terrorvision

Terrorvision

Terrorvision are an English rock band. They were formed in 1987 in Keighley, and initially disbanded in 2001...

, Rico

RICO

-Music:*Rico , a 2000 album by Matt Bianco*"Rico" , a 1998 song the Matthew Good Band from the album Underdogs*Rico International, a manufacturer of reeds, mouthpieces, and woodwind accessories...

, The Faint

The Faint

The Faint is an American indie rock band. Formed in Omaha, Nebraska, the band consists of Todd Fink, Jacob Thiele, Dapose, Joel Petersen and Clark Baechle. The Faint was originally known as Norman Bailer and included Conor Oberst...

, Bishop Allen

Bishop Allen

Bishop Allen is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York. The band's core members are Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, who are supported both on stage and in the studio by a rotating cast of musical collaborators...

, The Kransky Sisters

The Kransky Sisters

The Kransky Sisters are an Australian musical comedy trio created, written and performed by Annie Lee and Christine Johnston in collaboration with Michele Watt and Carolyn Johns ....

, Victoria Vox

Victoria Vox

Victoria Davitt , better known by stage name Victoria Vox, is a singer, songwriter and musician specializing in the ukulele...

, and Two Sheds. A live version by Oh-OK

Oh-OK

Oh-OK was an American musical group from Athens, Georgia formed in 1981 with singer/lyricist Linda Hopper, bassist/vocalist/lyricist Lynda Stipe, and drummer David Pierce. Other members later included drummer David McNair and guitarist Matthew Sweet. The trio began practicing together at parties in...

 appears on The Complete Recordings

The Complete Recordings (Oh-OK album)

The Complete Recordings is a compilation album for Oh-OK released by Collector's Choice Music on June 24, 2002. The compilation includes all of the band's previous releases as well as a live set from 1984—shortly before the group broke up....

. Pete Doherty

Pete Doherty

Peter Doherty is an English musician, writer, actor, poet and artist. He is best known musically for being co-frontman of The Libertines, which he reformed with Carl Barât in 2010. His other musical project is indie band Babyshambles...

 covered the song during his performance at Glastonbury

Glastonbury

Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,784 in the 2001 census...

 in 2009. "Psycho Killer" has been covered a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 by both The Flying Pickets

The Flying Pickets

The Flying Pickets are a British a cappella vocal group, who had a Christmas number one hit in 1983 in the UK Singles Chart with their cover of Yazoo's track "Only You".-History:...

 and The Bobs

The Bobs

The Bobs were dubbed the first new wave a cappella group in history when they were founded in San Francisco, California in the early 1980s. Now based in Seattle, Washington, this genre-bending, eccentric vocal group has maintained a healthy cult following in the U.S...

. An opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic version by Kate Miller-Heidke

Kate Miller-Heidke

Kate Miller-Heidke is a singer-songwriter from Brisbane, Australia. Although classically trained, she has followed a career in alternative pop music. She is signed to Sony Australia, Epic in the US and RCA in the UK.-Career:...

 is played during the closing credits of an episode of Spicks and Specks, and a version in Polish ("Psychobójca") by Mariusz Lubomski.

Massachusetts-based band The Fools

The Fools

The Fools are a Massachusetts rock band best known for the party atmosphere of their live performances and tongue-in-cheek original songs, covers and parodies.-History:...

 released a version with parody lyrics entitled "Psycho Chicken"; it was included as a bonus record with their major-label debut album Sold Out in 1980 and released in a live version on their 2003 live album The F In Beach Album. The phrase "A Psycho Killer/Well Qu'est-ce que c'est?" is repeated in the song "M & M

Watoosh!

* Track 13 is an instrumental, while tracks 11, 12 and 14-16 are blank.* The track "M & M" is about a group of gothic kids that used to come into the HMV where Kowalewicz worked.-Personnel:*Benjamin Kowalewicz - lead vocals...

" by the band Pezz, who are now known as Billy Talent

Billy Talent

Billy Talent is a Canadian post-hardcore band from Streetsville, Ontario. They formed in 1993 with Ben Kowalewicz as the lead vocalist, Ian D'Sa on lead guitar, bassist Jon Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk ....

. In 2009, the song was also covered by Italian X Factor

X Factor (Italy)

X Factor is a successful TV show airing on prime time in Italy. The singing competition is the Italian version of The X Factor franchise...

winner Marco Mengoni

Marco Mengoni

Marco Mengoni is an Italian singer. He rose to fame in 2009, after winning the third season of Italian talent show The X Factor. The following year he ranked third in the 60th Sanremo Music Festival with the song "Credimi ancora". As of January 2011, he has sold a total of 220,000 copies in Italy...

. The song was later included in his debut EP, Dove si vola.

Rapper Ice-T

ICE-T

* Ice-T, an American rapper and actor* ICE T , a tilting model of the German InterCityExpress series of high-speed trains...

 says that "Psycho Killer" was a starting influence for Body Count

Body Count

Body Count is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1990. The group is fronted by rapper and actor Ice-T, who founded the group out of his interest in heavy metal music, taking on the role of vocalist and writing the lyrics for most of the group's songs. Lead guitarist...

's controversial hit "Cop Killer

Cop Killer (song)

"Cop Killer" is a song by American band Body Count, from its 1992 self-titled debut album. The lyrics are sung from the point of view of an individual who is outraged by police brutality and decides to take the law into his own hands by killing police officers...

".

In 2008, French mash-up producer ToToM mixed "Psycho Killer" with MSTRKRFT

MSTRKRFT

MSTRKRFT is a Canadian electronic music duo from Toronto, Ontario. The group was started in 2005 by Jesse F. Keeler of Death from Above 1979 and Al-P formerly of the Mississauga, Ontario electropop group Girlsareshort...

's "Bounce" and is widely known as "Psycho Bouncer".

Seattle based Electro/Hip-Hop group Mad Rad referenced the song in their song "Qu'est-ce Que C'est" (the title itself, a reference) with lyrics, "I'm a psycho, you're a killer. Qu'est-ce Que C'est. Run away"

In popular culture

The song has been featured in many TV series, including The Simpsons

The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

, Heroes

Heroes (TV series)

Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...

, St. Elsewhere

St. Elsewhere

St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...

and Mad Dogs

Mad Dogs (TV series)

Mad Dogs is a four-part British black comedy and psychological thriller television series created by Cris Cole that started broadcast on Sky1 on 10 February 2011. It was produced by Left Bank Pictures, and co-produced by Palma Pictures. The series stars John Simm, Marc Warren, Max Beesley and...

. It is also featured in the films Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a 2006 film/mockumentary directed by Scott Glosserman. It stars Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals and Robert Englund. The film is a homage to the slasher film genre. It follows a film crew that documents an aspiring serial killer who models himself...

and Julie and Julia, as well as in the trailer for the film Killers

Killers (2010 film)

Killers is a 2010 American romantic comedy action film starring Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara. The film was released in the United States and Canada on June 4, 2010...

. In the third episode of television show Flight of the Conchords

Flight of the Conchords (TV series)

Flight of the Conchords is an American television comedy series that debuted on HBO on June 17, 2007. The show follows the adventures of Flight of the Conchords, a two-man band from New Zealand, as its members seek fame and success in New York City. The show stars the real-life duo, Jemaine Clement...

, "Mugged

Mugged (Flight of the Conchords)

"Mugged" is the third episode of the HBO comedy series Flight of the Conchords. It first aired in the United States on Sunday, July 1, 2007.-Plot synopsis:...

", a reference to "Psycho Killer" is featured in a line of dialogue, "He's a psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?". In 2008, the song was included in the music video game

Music video game

A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...

 Rock Band 2

Rock Band 2

Rock Band 2 is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems. It is the sequel to Rock Band and is the second title in the series. The game allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments...

, developed by Harmonix Music Systems

Harmonix Music Systems

Harmonix Music Systems is an American video game development company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States...

.
The Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

 game Ghetto Blaster features an enemy called "Psycho Killer". If he manages to catch the player, the screen displays the lyrics to the chorus of the song.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is a musical ensemble featuring ukuleles in different registers and a bass ukulele .-History:...

 performed their arrangement at the Royal Albert Hall

Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....

 in a concert broadcast live on BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...

 as part of The Proms

The Proms

The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...

season, 2009.

The phrase "Psycho killer, qu-est-ce que c'est?" is also used to describe the character Juliet Sykes in Lauren Oliver's novel, Before I Fall, published in February 2010.