Spring 2020 sees the 35th anniversary of Tears For Fears iconic ten million-selling album Songs From The Big Chair.
The 35th celebrations will include the release of a limited picture disc version of the album and a reissue of the much sought after super deluxe 4CD/2DVD boxset which currently changes hands for hundreds of dollars.
Songs From The Big Chair was Tears For Fears second album and spawned classic worldwide hit songs such as the US #1 singles “Everybody Wants To Rule the World” and “Shout” as well as “Head over Heels” and “Mother’s Talk.”
Upon its first release, Songs From The Big Chair spent 30 weeks in the UK top ten-album chart, a whole year in the top 30 and only left the charts 18 months later. The story was very much the same all over the world, the album spent five weeks at #1 in the US, and much like the UK, it was in the Billboard Chart for 18 months.
Looking back at the album Roland Orzabal commented, “Pop music was still a growth industry. It hadn’t sort of stagnated, stalled, diversified into streaming like it is nowadays. We were young, we were both good-looking and we had the right music. As we move further and further from that decade and you keep hearing “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” in various forms I do think it is an era-defining album.”
Curt Smith “You would never normally get three songs that strong in an album. But balance that out with tracks like “Listen”, “The Working Hour;” all those things that give it air and give it time to breathe I think is what makes it something more than just the sum of its parts. I think the album had a lot more depth than a lot of those other albums of that time. And albums of more depth tend to stick around longer.”
The album is being made available for the first time as a limited-edition picture disc, and due to overwhelming demand, the super deluxe version will be reissued. The 4CD/2DVD box set features a multitude of remixes, live tracks, BBC sessions, B-sides, previously unreleased tracks and 5.1 surround sound and stereo mixes of the album mixed by four-time Grammy nominee, Steven Wilson.
SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR – LIMITED EDITION PICTURE DISC
SIDE ONE
Shout
The Working Hour
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Mothers Talk
SIDE TWO
I Believe
Broken
Head Over Heels
Listen
SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR – SUPER DELUXE EDITION – 4CD/2DVD
DISC ONE
Songs from The Big Chair
Shout
The Working Hour
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Mothers Talk
I Believe
Broken
Head Over Heels
Listen
B-Sides
The Big Chair
Empire Building
The Marauders
Broken Revisited
The Conflict
The Working Hour (Piano Version)
Pharaohs
When in Love with A Blind Man
Sea Song
DISC TWO
“Edited Songs”: 7″ Versions
The Way You Are (7″ version)
Mothers Talk (Short Version)
Shout (Edit)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Single version)
Head Over Heels (Dave Bascombe 7″ version)
I Believe (A Soulful Re- Recording)
Everybody Wants To Run The World
International 7″ Versions
The Way You Are (Edit)
Mothers Talk (US Remix)
Shout (US Single Version)
Everybody Wants to Run the World (Running Version)
Head Over Heels (Hughes 7″ Edit aka Radio Mix)
Mothers Talk (Video version)
Listen (Clean intro)
Interview with Curt and Roland
DISC THREE
Remixed Songs”: 12″ Versions, Dubs and more
The Way You Are (Extended version)
Mothers Talk (Extended version)
Shout (Extended remix)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Extended version)
Broken / Head Over Heels / Broken (Preacher Mix)
Mothers Talk (Beat Of The Drum Mix)
Shout (US remix)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Urban mix)
Mothers Talk (US remix alternate)
Shout (Dub)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Instrumental)
Shout (Acapella)
DISC FOUR
“Unreleased Songs”: Promos, Demos & Live tracks
At The BBC
Head Over Heels (Radio 1 Richard Skinner Session)
The Working Hour (Radio 1 Richard Skinner Session)
Broken (Radio 1 Richard Skinner Session)
Live at Massey Hall
Mothers Talk
Broken/Head Over Heels
Memories Fade
The Working Hour
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Shout
Early Mixes
Mothers Talk (Early mix)
The Way You Are (Early mix)
Broken (Early mix)
Shout (Early mix)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (alt 7″ with brass)
DISC 5 DVD AUDIO
Steven Wilson 5.1 Mix
Shout
The Working Hour
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Mothers Talk
I Believe
Broken
Head Over Heels
Listen
Steven Wilson Stereo Mix
Shout
The Working Hour
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Mothers Talk
I Believe
Broken
Head Over Heels
Listen
DISC 6 – DVD VIDEO
Scenes From The Big Chair (985 documentary) (1hr 14 mins)
Interview with producer Chris Hughes (2005) (35 mins)
Music Videos
The Way You Are (Music video)
Mothers Talk (Music video)
Mothers Talk (alternative UK video)
Shout (Music video)
Everybody Wants to Rule The World (Music video)
Head Over Heels (Music video)
I Believe (Music video)
Mothers Talk (US version)
Everybody Wants to Run the World (Music video)
Tears for Fears at the BBC
The Way You Are (Top Of The Pops)
Mothers Talk (Top Of The Pops)
Mothers Talk (Top Of The Pops)
Shout (Top Of The Pops)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Wogan)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Top Of The Pops)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Top Of The Pops)
The Working Hour (Wogan)
Tears For Fears – Roland Orzabal (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Curt Smith (vocals, bass, keyboards) formed in Bath, England 1981. Beyond selling 30 million albums worldwide, performing to countless sold out audiences, and winning various awards, the duo’s DNA remains embedded within three generations of artists on both subtle and overt levels.
Quietly casting a shadow over rock, hip-hop, electronic dance music, indie, and beyond, Kanye West interpolated “Memories Fade” on “The Coldest Winter” from the seminal 808s & Heartbreak, The Weekend infused “Pale Shelter” into Starboy’s “Secrets,” David Guetta sampled “Change” for “Always,” and Drake utilized “Ideas as Opiates” as the foundation for “Lust For Life,” while Ally Brooke Hernandez, Adam Lambert, and Gary Jules recorded popular covers of “Mad World” and Disturbed took on “Shout,” to name a few. Lorde cut a haunting cover of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” for the Soundtrack of the blockbuster The Hunger Games – Catching Fire, which Tears For Fears gleefully would use as intro music live and thus bring everything full circle. Meanwhile, classic songs figure prominently everywhere from The Wire and Donnie Darko to Straight Outta Compton and Mr. Robot. Long before, they became a cultural cornerstone Tears For Fears simply consisted of two school friends growing up in Bath, Somerset UK.
Representing an inimitable intersection of pop palatability, clever and cognizant lyricism, guitar bombast, and new wave innovation, their 1983 debut The Hurting yielded anthems such as “Mad World,” “Change,” and “Pale Shelter,” reaching RIAA Gold status in the United States. 1985’s Songs from the Big Chair became a watershed moment for the group and music at large. Boasting the signature BRIT Award-winning “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Shout,” “Head over Heels,” “Mothers Talk” and “I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording),” it went quintuple-platinum and captured #1 on the Billboard Top 200. Slant dubbed it one of “The Best Albums of the 1980s,” it featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and Consequence of Sound awarded it a rare A+ rating in a 20-year retrospective.
1989’s Seeds of Love proved to be Roland and Curt’s last collaboration together until Everybody Loves A Happy Ending in 2004, which rekindled the creative fire between them.
The band engaged in a three-year touring whirlwind across North America, Japan, South Korea, Manila, and South America beginning in 2010. 2013 saw them return with their first recorded music in a decade: a cover of Arcade Fire’s “Ready to Start.” The band returned once more in 2017 with “I Love You But I’m Lost” a track written and recorded with the multi platinum British act Bastille taken from the “Rule The World” best of collection which once more catapulted the band back to the upper echelon of the UK album charts.
With more new material and further reissues on the horizon Roland and Curt remain as loud as ever, while yet another generation gets ready to “Shout” with them all over again.
