“Heads Will Roll” is perhaps the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ most dance-forward release, and it peaked at #1 on Billboard’s dance singles chart in the United States. The refrain certainly suggests as much, with Karen O repeatedly wailing, “Dance ’til you’re dead.”
For the “Dancing with the Stars” promo, the words “til you’re dead” were dropped, making the ads decidedly less macabre. Nevertheless, the lyric “heads will roll” hammers home the point that “Dancing with the Stars” does have high stakes as an elimination competition.
The groove of “Heads Will Roll” is even more pronounced in the commercials, as they feature the remix by A-Trak, which Rolling Stone once named one of the 200 greatest dance tracks of all time. Watching the Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform at Coachella in 2009 inspired A-Trak to make the remix. “Usually it’s the other way around, the band would ask the remixer, but I heard something there, and I needed those stems,” he said, speaking of the song’s unmixed multitrack recordings.
“Heads Will Roll” is an ideal track for a dance show, but the synthy gothic keyboards and dark lyrics also make it an easy contender for horror promos. In 2021, the song was featured in Syfy’s “Chucky” trailer.
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