| Girlfriend Is Better (Live) | |
| Cover: | Girlfriend Is Better.jpg |
| Caption: | UK vinyl edition |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Talking Heads |
| Album: | Stop Making Sense |
| B-Side: | Once in a Lifetime (Live) |
| Released: | 26 November 1984 (UK) |
| Recorded: | December 1983 |
| Venue: | Pantages Theatre, Hollywood |
| Genre: | Funk rock[1] |
| Length: | 3:32 |
| Label: | Sire/Warner Bros |
| Producer: | Talking Heads |
| Prev Title: | Slippery People (Live) |
| Prev Year: | 1984 |
| Next Title: | The Lady Don't Mind |
| Next Year: | 1985 |
"Girlfriend Is Better" is a 1984 song by new wave band Talking Heads, from their fifth studio album Speaking in Tongues. The song's single version was a live version, recorded at Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, from the soundtrack of their 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, named for a lyric from the song.
Rolling Stones David Fricke described the song: "On the surface, 'Girlfriend Is Better' is a brassy, straightforward bump number sparked by Byrne's animated bragging ... and by the kind of rapid, zizagging synth squeals so common on rap and funk records. But the edgy paranoia smoldering underneath ... is colorfully articulated by guitar and percussion figures that burble along in a fatback echo, sounding like a sink backing up."[2]
An edited version of the concert piece from the film, was issued as "Stop Making Sense (Girlfriend Is Better)", in both 7" and 12" format, in November 1984.[3]
| Chart (1984) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart[4] | 59 | |
| New Zealand Singles Chart[5] | 21 | |
| UK Singles Chart[6] | 99 |