American alternative rock band Pixies for their 1991 album Trompe le Monde. Pixies' version was released as a single in 1991. The band chose to cover the song because Pixies frontman Black Francis liked the song. J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. commented, "He [Francis] wasn't that hip when it came to modern music. He heard 'Head On' and just loved it. The Pixies were a strange band." Music video By 1991, Pixies refused to film music videos for their singles. After a long debate with Elektra Records, their record company in the United States, the band relented and agreed to film a video, as long as the song was done completely live. Peter Lubin, the A&R representative of Elektra at the time, later explained the situation: Lubin then came up with the idea for the video. Twelve cameras would be placed, "dividing" each band member into three blocks. Frontman Black Francis was happy with this idea, so Scott Litt was then hired to produce the video. After the video had been filmed, Elektra invited the "whole decision-making team from MTV" to view it. The video was added to MTV's rotation, later receiving the "Breakthrough Video" award. Pixies' track listing All songs written by Black Francis, except where otherwise noted. "Head On" (Single Mix) (Jim Reid and William Reid) – 2:20 "Planet of Sound" (Live at Brixton Academy, 26 July 1991) – 2:26 "Tame" (Live at Brixton Academy, 26 July 1991) – 2:27 "Debaser" (Live in Chicago, 9 August 1989) – 2:41 Charts References Frank, Josh; Ganz, Caryn. "Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies." Virgin Books, 2005. . External links "Head On" lyrics "Head On" at Last.fm "Head On" at Google Music 1989 singles 1991 singles Pixies (band) songs The Jesus and Mary Chain songs Elektra Records singles Songs written by Jim Reid Songs written by William Reid (musician) 1989 songs Blanco y Negro Records singles Post-punk songs Song recordings produced by Gil Norton Music videos directed by Howard Greenhalgh