The original studio version was produced in a novel manner: instead of writing a song and then recording it, the band members recorded jam sessions in the studio, played them back, and built a song around a small riff that caught their attention. The novelty and subsequent popularity of this production method led NPR to consider “Once in a Lifetime” one of the top 100 most important songs of the 20th century. To achieve this, Talking Heads practiced the riff until they could “manually loop” it, playing the riff continuously throughout the song. Bassist Tina Weymouth explained: “Just the year before, there had been the beginnings of hip hop, and it influenced us in different ways to realize that things were shifting” (Karr).
Other musical aspects of the original “Once in a Lifetime” tie the single definitively to the new wave chronology. The piece demonstrates elements of rock heritage, such as common time, amplified electric guitars, and a bass as rhythm guitar. The element of call-and-response, traceable to slave spirituals but thoroughly integrated into the blues and rock chronology, is performed by Byrne and Eno. In the main vocals, Byrne imitates a preacher with lines about “watching the days go by,” and Eno responds as the audience with lines about the water. Harrison’s burbling keyboard riff reflects the prominent use of synthesizers in new wave. Drummer Chris Frantz states frankly that the group “just stole” the song’s concluding organ part from the seminal art-rock group Velvet Underground (Karr). This, too, is an instance of sampling and parallels the technique’s use in hip-hop to assert a song’s place in the musical lineage of an earlier work.
Distinctly new wave is the song’s Do-It-Yourself aesthetic reflected in what critic John Rockwell describes as the “forced, cracked tenor” of Byrne’s vocals and the “scratchy, coloristic chording from the guitar” (238). While some amount of unpolished production can be attributed to the band members’ primary study as artists rather than musicians, Talking Heads use this for deliberate effect: In a self-interview for Stop Making Sense, Byrne asks himself, “I don’t think you have a very good voice. But you’re a singer,” to which he replies, “The better a singer’s voice, the harder it is to believe what they’re saying. So I use my faults to an advantage” (Demme, Stop Making Sense).