The album peaked at number two in the UK and at number one in the
U.S., becoming a multi-platinum seller and the band's most successful
studio album to date. Spawning five singles "Mothers Talk", "Shout", "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", "Head Over Heels" & "I Believe"
The singles "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" both topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top 5 of the UK Singles Chart, while "Head over Heels", "Mothers Talk" and a live version of "I Believe" were also successful internationally.
The album was to be titled The Working Hour, but Roland Orzabal thought to change it to Songs from the Big Chair, a title derived from the 1976 American television film Sybil about a woman with multiple personality disorder who only feels safe when sitting in her analyst's "big chair." The title reflects the band's opinion that they were the targets of a hostile British music press. The band started to generate new material around the beginning of 1984. The first song written for the album was "Head over Heels", which the band played live during a tour undertaken between the two studio albums.
Recorded at The Wool Hall in 1984. Conceptually and musically, it further developed the band's sound from the previous studio album The Hurting (1983), reintroducing guitars to their electronic sound and imparting a lighter approach overall. Early songs written for the album included "Head over Heels" and "The Working Hour". "Mothers Talk" was released months before the album as a single. These songs, as well as "We Are Broken", were all performed on the Tears for Fears 1983 tour. The song "Shout" became a central work during the recording of the album, and the band and producer Chris Hughes spent months working on the track.
The album utilises many styles and influences, and progressive rock was cited as a primary influence on the album. "I Believe" was influenced by the songwriting of Robert Wyatt. "Broken" is a reworking of an earlier song and a live version is repeated at the end of "Head over Heels". The largely instrumental "Listen" has been described as a symphonic piece. Lyrically, the psychological themes on The Hurting were continued and extended to include a variety of themes such as politics, war, money and love.
Near the end of the completion of the album, Roland Orzabal played two simple chords on his acoustic guitar that formed the foundation of the song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". Although he was initially not interested in working on it, Orzabal was convinced to write a song based on the two chords and he added the chorus line. The song was completed in about a week and was the last track recorded for the album.
The album also heralded a dramatic maturation in the band's music, away from the synth-pop brand and moving towards a complex, enveloping pop sophistication. The songwriting of Orzabal, Smith, and keyboardist Ian Stanley took a huge leap forward, drawing on reserves of palpable emotion and lovely, protracted melodies that draw just as much on soul and R&B music as they do on immediate pop hooks, almost be called pseudo-conceptual, as each song holds its place and each is integral to the overall tapestry, a single-minded resolve that is easy to overlook when an album is as commercially successful as Songs from the Big Chair.
It was not only a commercial triumph, it was an artistic tour de force. No doubt with the single "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," Tears for Fears perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the mid-'80s while impossibly managing to also create a dreamy, timeless pop classic making the album one of the finest statements of the decade.
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