Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne has carved out a notable career in film music, from orchestrating the greatest concert film of all time (Stop Making Sense, dir. Jonathan Demme, 1984) to composing and contributing to a variety of film scores and soundtracks . Here’s an entirely subjective playlist of his best film work.

David Byrne at the Movies Spotify Playlist

Talking Heads // Burning Down the House – Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme, 1984)

Talking Heads // Sax and Violins – Until the End of the World (Wim Wenders, 1991)

Talking Heads // Girlfriend is Better – Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme, 1984)

David Byrne // The Last Emperor title theme (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987)

Talking Heads // What a Day That Was – Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme, 1984)

David Byrne // Strange Overtones – Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (Oliver Stone, 2010)

Talking Heads // Life During Wartime – Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme, 1984)

David Byrne // Wind, Rain and Water – The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987)

Talking Heads // Heaven – Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme, 1984)

Talking Heads // This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) – Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987)

And, much like Quentin Tarantino ‘acting’ in his own films, this affords a perfect opportunity for an egotistical blogger to appear in one of his own posts: