Heads Will Roll (song)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, composed of singer/songwriter Karen O, guitarist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase, became prominent figures in the 2000s garage rock and post-punk revivals and stood at the forefront of the New York music scene.^[1][2] Following their breakthrough with their 2003 landmark debut album Fever to Tell, the band aimed to reinvent themselves with every subsequent record.^[3] Karen O explained, "We put out a record every three years now; we could easily be forgotten. If you look at a lot of our peers that we came up with, a lot of them have disappeared."^[4]

After the troubled production of Show Your Bones (2006),^[5] their second album, Yeah Yeah Yeahs would wait until 2008 to begin work on their next effort, It's Blitz!.^[6] The band wrote all of It's Blitz!'s songs during its production and shifted to a dance-punk and pop rock sound. They recorded at five different studios and took several breaks to keep inspiration fresh; one of these five sessions spawned "Heads Will Roll".^[6][7]

"Heads Will Roll" is characterized as a dance-rock and alternative rock song that runs for three minutes and 42 seconds.^[8][9] According to sheet music published by Universal Music Publishing Group, it is composed in ⁴
₄ time in the key of G minor with a tempo of 132 beats per minute.^[10] Its lyrics, written by Karen O, are about an ill-fated night on the dancefloor, which was inspired by horror stories.^[11]

The song is driven by a vintage string riff played by Zinner, which was created with a sample from a Mellotron sound card.^[12] It utilizes pre-recorded samples of Chase's drums and Zinner's ARP synthesizer, contrasting the band's previous recording sessions.^[6][7]

The song's music video was directed by Richard Ayoade, and premiered on NME on May 26, 2009.^[13] It features the band playing in a (presumably) underground venue when a dancing werewolf whose dancing is reminiscent of Michael Jackson (who died four days before the single was released and 30 days after the music video premiered) appears on stage. A light flashes halfway through the music video and the werewolf transforms. He then proceeds to chase after the audience and kills most of them. The video then ends with the band having been murdered while Karen O continues singing, her head severed from her body.

The music video contains some mockery of horror in general; instead of blood, there is red glitter and confetti and Karen O keeps singing while decapitated. In the UK, there are two different versions of this video, the second replacing the violent conclusion with repeated clips from the previous section of the video, but it shows the confetti falling onto the band.^[14]

The video was nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video.^[15]

Quick facts Genre, Length ...

"Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix)"
Remix by Yeah Yeah Yeahs and A-Trak
Genre	Dance house
Length	6:23 (original mix) 3:23 (radio edit)
Songwriters	Brian Chase Karen Orzolek Nick Zinner
Producer	Alain Macklovitch

Close

A remix by Canadian artist A-Trak was released on November 17, 2009.^[16] The original mix runs for six minutes and 23 seconds, while a radio edit shortened it by three minutes.^[17] It was ranked at number 124 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time".^[18]

"Heads Will Roll" was performed by Scarlett Johansson in 2021 for the animated film Sing 2.^[19]

Figure skater Amber Glenn used a version of "Heads Will Roll" during the 2023–24 season and went on to win the 2024 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.^[20] The song was also used as the BBC Sport theme song for the 2025 UEFA Women's Euro Championship.^[21]