You might run into a band as consistently innovative, as good, and as exciting as the Talking Heads more one than once in a lifetime, but don't count on it. If you don't believe me, get a copy of Once in a Lifetime, a superb three-CD, one-DVD box, stay up late, and spend a few hours listening to it, and you'll see what I mean.

My first serious brush with the band was in 1978, when I heard their cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River" (from their second album, More Songs about Buildings and Food). I was familiar with the band – as familiar as you could be if you lived in California and weren't a New York punk hipster, anyway – but had relegated them to the special class of "bands that can't really play" that most, or maybe even all, punk wound up in back then (the Avengers were great, but did you ever hear them play?). I wasn't about to cut a punk band with the nerve to cover an R&B classic one inch of slack. Of course, as it turned out, they didn't need me, because they brought respect, chops, and their bent art-school brains to the tune and kicked its ass from beginning to end.

The Talking Heads kicked ass for most of the next decade, and it shows on this compilation, which captures everything that made them such a special group. The choice of material is excellent, showcasing a band whose grasp nearly always matched their reach. Part of their genius is captured in the restless, relentless growth between '78's More Songs and 1983's Speaking in Tongues, initially aided by the band's association with Brian Eno, who it is said made sure the band's powerful rhythm section (Tina Weymouth on bass, Chris Frantz on drums) was front and center, thereby ensuring a danceability that was rare in that scene.