Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath in 1981 by Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, Tears for Fears were associated with the synth-pop bands of the 1980s, and attained international chart success as part of the Second British Invasion.
members: Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, Manny Elias, Curt Smith
formed in: Bath
labels: Mercury Records, Epic Records, Fontana Records
genres: new wave
influenced by: Be-Bop Deluxe
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Orzabal and Smith met as teenagers in Bath, Somerset, and bonded over their shared affection for rock groups like Thin Lizzy and Blue Öyster Cult. Their professional debut came with the band Graduate, a mod revival/new wave act whose influences included the Jam and two-tone music. In 1980, Graduate released an album, Acting My Age, and a single "Elvis Should Play Ska" (referring to Elvis Costello). The single just missed the UK pop chart, but performed well in Spain and in Switzerland. The band split in 1981. Shortly afterwards, Orzabal and Smith became session musicians for the band Neon, where they first met future Tears for Fears drummer Manny Elias. Neon also featured Pete Byrne and Rob Fisher, who went on to become Naked Eyes. The...
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"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a song by the English pop rock band Tears for Fears from their second studio album Songs from the Big Chair (1985). It was written by Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, and Chris Hughes and produced by Hughes.
It was released on 22 March 1985, by Phonogram, Mercury, and Vertigo Records as the third single from the album. Philosophical in nature, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a new wave and synth-pop song with lyrics that detail the desire humans have for control and power, and centres on themes of corruption.
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was written by Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley and Chris Hughes, and produced by Hughes. The song was a "last-minute" addition during recording sessions of Songs from the Big Chair (1985). The decision to include the song in the album came after Orzabal played two chords on his acoustic guitar for Hughes. It was recorded in two weeks and added as the final track on the album. According to Orzabal, the final line in the song's chorus, originally written as "Everybody wants to go to war", contributed to his indifference towards the track.
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a new wave and synth-pop song. Sheet music for the song is set in the key of D major (original is slightly detuned) with a 128 time signature and a tempo of 112 beats per minute. The band stated that the driving shuffle rhythm was influenced by Simple Minds' 1983 song "Waterfront", and Linx's 1981 song "Throw Away the Key". "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" incorporates synthesizers, guitar, a shuffle groove, two guitar solos, and keyboards.
Consequence of Sound editor Michael Roffman praised the group for being able to produce a "timeless and influential composition" with minimal effort. Roffman also noted that "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was appropriate when it was first released, calling it a "meditative commentary on an era that was so corrupt economically and spiritually." AllMusic's Stanton Swihart expressed in his retrospective review that the group "perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the mid-'80s while impossibly managing to also create a dreamy, timeless pop classic." Pitchfork called it a song with "near-universal appeal", as well as a staple for "classic-rock radio, pharmacies, bars, and parties". In their review for the best albums of the 1980s, Eric...
The video for "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was directed by Nigel Dick. It was filmed in Los Angeles, Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, and Cabazon, California. Curt Smith admitted to Pitchfork that the video shoot was a "disaster"; Dick was "in tears" on the second night of shooting. Smith also mentioned that there was an accident while filming the "dirt bikes and four-wheel [sic] off-road vehicles" scene, with one child flying out of a vehicle and smashing his head, leaving him unconscious.
"Head over Heels" is a song recorded by the English new wave band Tears for Fears for their second studio album Songs from the Big Chair (1985). The song was released by Phonogram Records and Mercury Records, as the album's fourth single on 14 June 1985 in the UK.
It was the band's tenth single release in the United Kingdom and eighth top 40 hit in the country, peaking at number 12. In the United States, it was released in September 1985 as the third single from the album and continued the band's run of hits there, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
"Head over Heels" took approximately two years to develop, initially as an integral part of a musical introduction between songs on the album Songs from the Big Chair (much like "Broken," which had been previously released as the B-side to the 1983 single "Pale Shelter", titled as "We Are Broken").
The music video for "Head over Heels", filmed in late May and into June 1985, was the fourth Tears for Fears clip directed by music video producer Nigel Dick. A lighthearted video in comparison to the band's other promos, it is centred on Roland Orzabal's attempts to get the attention of a librarian (Joan Densmore), while a variety of characters (many played by the rest of the band), including a chimpanzee wearing a Red Sox jersey, engage in shenanigans in the library. The final scene shows Orzabal and the librarian as an older married couple. The video was filmed at the Emmanuel College Library in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
An edited version of "Head over Heels" is featured in the 2001 film Donnie Darko.
"Mad World" is a 1982 song by the English new wave band Tears for Fears. Written by Roland Orzabal and sung by bassist Curt Smith, it was the band's third single release and first chart hit, reaching number three on the UK Singles Chart in November 1982.
Both "Mad World" and its B-side, "Ideas as Opiates", appeared on the band's debut LP The Hurting (1983). This single was also the band's first international success, reaching the top 40 in several countries in 1982–83.
"Mad World" was originally written on acoustic guitar when Orzabal was 19 after being inspired to write a new wave song in the vein of Duran Duran's "Girls on Film". After a few false starts with Orzabal on vocals, he suggested Smith sing it and "suddenly it sounded fabulous". Retrospectively, it has been suggested that the chorus "Mad World" was partially inspired by the bridge of Cat Stevens' 1966 hit single "Matthew and Son", a similarity that has been referenced by Stevens in live performances.
The song was influenced by the theories of Arthur Janov, author of The Primal Scream. The lyric "the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" suggests that dreams of intense experiences such as death will be the best at releasing tension.
Cash Box said that the song "grows on you, expanding from a soft dance tune to a shy Britisher's confessions of his darkest dreams."
The promotional video for "Mad World" was filmed in late summer 1982, in the grounds of Knebworth House. It was Tears for Fears' first music video, and features Curt Smith staring out of a window while Roland Orzabal dances outside on a lakeside jetty. A brief party scene in the video features friends and family of the band, including Smith's mother as well as his then-wife Lynne.
"Shout" is a song by the English pop rock band Tears for Fears, released as the second single from their second studio album, Songs from the Big Chair (1985), on 23 November 1984. Roland Orzabal is the lead singer on the track, and he described it as "a simple song about protest".
The single became the group's fourth top 5 hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 4 in January 1985. In the US, it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 3 August 1985 and remained there for three weeks; also topping the Cash Box chart.
While Tears for Fears' previous single "Mothers Talk" had showcased a new, more extroverted songwriting style, "Shout" was completed with power chords, heavy percussion, a synth bass solo and a vocal-sounding synth riff. It begins with a percussive loop from an E-mu Drumulator drum machine before leading into the song's chorus, which follows a I–♭VI–IV–I chord progression. The song also has a lengthy guitar solo, unusual for Tears for Fears. Orzabal has said that the song "is actually more concerned with political protest" than the common view that it is about primal scream theory.
The promotional video for "Shout", filmed in late 1984, was the second Tears for Fears video directed by Nigel Dick. It features footage of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith at Durdle Door in Dorset on the south coast of England, as well as in a studio with the full band, including Ian Stanley and Manny Elias, performing the song amidst a crowd of family and friends.
In addition to the standard 7- and 12-inch releases, the "Shout" single was issued in two collectible formats in the UK: a limited-edition 10-inch single and a 7-inch boxed pack featuring a 1985 Tears for Fears calendar. A similar limited-edition 7-inch pack was released in Canada, this one featuring a 12-page booklet of band photos. In 1988, "Shout" was reissued on the short-lived CD Video format. The disc included two mixes of the title track, a remix of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", and the "Shout" music video.
Cash Box said that it has "an anthemic chorus and a booming production sound". John Leland at Spin called it, "the simple, mindless pop song Depeche Mode has been trying to write for years. The vocals sound like they're coming from a porcelain bathroom at the foot of the Alps. Other than that, its got a singsong melody that numbs all critical faculties, portentious lyrics that signify nothing, and a happy lack of synth doodles or Bowie-isms." Smash Hits reviewer Lesley White described it as "Effective and powerful pop with an insidious chorus you'll find yourself singing at the most inopportune moments. For that reason, a hit."