The performance at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, recorded in June 2005, was released on CD and DVD in France and Benelux. Entitled Secret World – Live in Paris, it was brought out on the XIII Bis label in early on 2006 and became a bestseller, with over 70,000 physical copies sold in addition to downloads. The CD contained the aforementioned new studio song, “Floating Down the River”, and a remastered Curt Smith/Mayfield track, “What Are We Fighting For?”. The relationship with XIII Bis proved so flourishing that Smith decided the relatively small French label to bring out his 2007 solo album, Halfway, Pleased.

After the albums release, Tears for Fears did a Secret World Tour.

Tears for Fears performing “Sowing the Seeds of Love”

Tears for Fears performing “Shout”

Tears for Fears  performing “Secret World”

The concert at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, recorded in June 2005, was released on DVD and CD in Benelux and France. Entitled Secret World – Live in Paris, it was released in the early 2006 on the XIII B is label and became a bestseller, with more than 70,000 physical copies sold in addition to downloads. The CD contained the new studio song, “Floating Down the River”, and a remastered Curt Smith/Mayfield track, “What Are We Fighting For?” The relationship with XIII Bis proved so triumphant that Smith chose the relatively small French label to release his  solo album, Halfway, Pleased in 2007.

Tears for Fears performing Sowing the Seeds of Love

Tears for Fears – Shout

Tears for Fears – Secret World

Tears for Fears – Mad World

Tears for Fears – Closest Thing to Heaven

A slightly rewritten version of one of their biggest hits was recorded and released in 1986 for the British fund-raising scheme Sport Aid, a splinter project of Band Aid in which people took part in running races of changeable distance and sincerity to raise more money for African projects. The slogan was “I Ran the World”; therefore Tears for Fears released “Everybody Wants To Run The World” (#5 in the UK and #4 in Ireland). They were indirectly involved in the earlier Band Aid single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” of 1984, which featured a slowed down sample from their song “The Hurting” in the introduction.

Tears for Fears went on a different direction in the early 1984 as they started to work with a new producer, Jeremy Green, on their new single “Mothers Talk”. But the band were eventually unsatisfied with the outcome and so producer Chris Hughes was brought back into the fold and the “Mothers Talk” single reproduced for release in August 1984. A distinct exit from their previous works, the single became a Top 20 hit in the UK, but it was the follow-up single “Shout” (released in the UK in November 1984) that was the real start of the band’s international fame.

This Top 5 hit gave way for their second album, Songs from the Big Chair (released in February 1985), which came in the UK album chart at no.2 and stayed in the higher level of the chart for the next 12 months. They did away with the mostly synth-pop feel of the first album, as an alternative intensifying into a more stylish sound that became the band’s stylistic hallmark. Anchored around the creative hub of producer Hughes, Stanley and Orzabal, the new Tears for Fears sound helped to boost Songs from the Big Chair into becoming one of the year’s biggest global sellers, finally being certified triple-platinum in the UK and quintuple-platinum in the U.S. (where it remained the #1 album for five weeks in the summer of 1985).

The success of the album was in combination to the collection of hit singles it yielded: “Mothers Talk” (rerecorded yet again for its US release in 1986), “Shout” (#4 UK, #1 in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, etc., and a huge hit in other countries, actually one of the biggest of the 1980s), “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, (their biggest UK and Irish hit at #2 and another #1 in the U.S. and in Canada), “Head over Heels” (UK #12, US #3, Ireland #5, Canada #8) and “I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording)” (UK #23 and Ireland #10). Some territories even saw the release of limited edition 10″ singles for these hits, and a selection of double packs and picture discs in addition to the regular 7″ and 12″ formats.

Next to the album’s release, the band went on a world tour that lasted most of the year. Throughout this tour, Orzabal and Smith discovered an American female singer/pianist, Oleta Adams, who was performing in a Kansas City, Missouri hotel bar, and whom they invited to collaborate on their next album.

The title of the album was inspired by the book and television miniseries Sybil, the chronicle of a woman with multiple personality disorder who sought sanctuary in the “big chair” of her analyst, Orzabal and Smith stating that they felt each of the album’s songs had a distinctive personality of its own. The band had a song entitled “The Big Chair” which was released as the B-side to “Shout” but was not included on the album. They released as well a video collection/documentary entitled Scenes from the Big Chair the same year, while their first two earliest singles were re-released, both reaching the UK Top 75.

After finishing the quite long and very tiring Big Chair world tour in 1986, Manny Elias left the group. Orzabal and Stanley then worked together on a side project named “Mancrab”, releasing a single, “Fish for Life”, which was written for the soundtrack of the film The Karate Kid, Part II. The track was written and produced by Orzabal and Stanley, which featured vocals by US singer/dancer Eddie Thomas.

Orzabal’s mother is English and his father is from Paris, but of Spanish-Basque descent. Orzabal was originally named “Raoul” at birth for two weeks, but this was afterward changed to Roland to anglicize the name as they were living in England. He was brought up in Bath, attending Culverhay School and becoming a member of the Zenith Youth Theatre Company.

During their early teen days, Orzabal met Curt Smith in Bath, England. During the late-1970s, they formed a mod music group called Graduate, together with three other members. The group disbanded soon after releasing their debut album, Acting My Age. Orzabal and Smith then formed Tears for Fears; a synth pop/new wave music outfit frankly enthused by the writings of Arthur Janov, an American psychologist.

Orzabal has been married to his wife Caroline since 1982. They have two children, Raoul and Pascal.

At the height of Tears for Fears’ popularity in 1985, Orzabal gained considerable press attention for his strained relationship with his father and a humorous cartoon was printed in the UK tabloid The Sun pertaining to this. The cartoon was later reprinted within the cover artwork for the Tears for Fears single “I Believe”.

On top of co-producing most of Tears for Fears’ records, Orzabal also co-produced Oleta Adams’ successful album Circle of One (1990) together with Dave Bascombe, following on from Adams’ collaboration on the 1989 Tears for Fears album The Seeds of Love. The album reached #1 in the UK and #20 in the US, and featured her transatlantic top ten hit “Get Here”. Orzabal also co-wrote the lead track “Rhythm of Life” for the album, which was at first intended for The Seeds of Love. He also appeared in the song’s accompanying music video, as well as played guitar and sang backing vocals on the track.

After a decade of major international success, Orzabal and Smith had an unfriendly split in the early 1990s. Orzabal continued to work as Tears for Fears after he and Smith parted ways, the subsequent TFF albums Elemental (1993) and Raoul and the Kings of Spain  (1995) are in fact solo works by him in all but name. Elemental was a success being certified as Gold status in the US and Silver in the UK, while Raoul took a more artistic direction garnering less chart success. In 2001 he released his first proper solo album, Tomcats Screaming Outside, under his own name as he and Smith had reconciled by that point and were working on a new Tears for Fears album together (2004′s Everybody Loves a Happy Ending).

In 1999, Orzabal also co-produced the Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini’s acclaimed album Love In The Time Of Science, along with Tears for Fears associate Alan Griffiths. The pair also wrote two tracks for the album.

Although he did not produce it, Orzabal’s talents as a songwriter were known again in recent years after Gary Jules’ cover version of the song “Mad World” became the Christmas #1 single in the UK in 2003. It is taken from the soundtrack of the film Donnie Darko. The song was composed originally by Orzabal and was Tears for Fears’ 1982 first hit single.

Other than psychology and music, Orzabal has shown interest in astrology, photography, politics, and sociology.

Everybody Loves a Happy Ending

The albums work started in 2000, after Orzabal and Smith ended their longstanding disagreement.

Track listing

1. “Everybody Loves a Happy Ending” (Orzabal, Pettus, Smith) – 4:21

2. “Closest Thing to Heaven” (Orzabal, Pettus, Smith) – 3:36

3. “Call Me Mellow” (Orzabal, Pettus, Smith) – 3:39

4. “Size of Sorrow” (Orzabal) – 4:43

5. “Who Killed Tangerine?” (Orzabal, Pettus, Smith) – 5:33

6. “Quiet Ones” (Orzabal) – 4:22

7. “Who You Are” (Pettus, Smith) – 3:41

8. “The Devil” (Orzabal) – 3:30

9. “Secret World” (Orzabal) – 5:12

10. “Killing With Kindness” (Orzabal, Pettus, Smith) – 5:25

11. “Ladybird” (Orzabal, Pettus, Smith) – 4:50

12. “Last Days on Earth” (Orzabal, Pettus, Smith) – 5:41

The UK and French releases had two additional tracks:

13. “Pullin’ a Cloud” (Dorsey,MacLeod,Orzabal)– 2:48

14. “Out of Control” (Griffiths,Orzabal, Pettus, Smith)– 5:08

Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, and Charlton Pettus predominantly played the album. Orzabal performs lead vocal on ten of the twelve tracks (and the two bonus tracks), whilst Smith performs lead vocal on two tracks “Who You Are” and “Size Of Sorrow”.

Fred Eltringham played drums for the album, except on “Size Of Sorrow”.

Additional musicians were recognized as follows:

* Everybody Loves a Happy Ending – Trumpet: Rick Baptist

* Size of Sorrow – Drums: Brian Geltner; Additional guitar: Kenny Siegal

* Who Killed Tangerine? – Background vocals: Kenny Siegal, Gwen Snyder, Alexander Giglio. Crowd vocals: Julian Orzabal, Laura Gray

* Secret World – Orchestra arranged and conducted by Paul Buckmaster. Contractor: Suzie Katayama, Bob Becker – viola, Charlie Bisharat – violin, Denyse Buffman – viola, Eve Butler – violin, Mario de Leon – violin, Joel Derouin – violin, Stefanie Fife – cello, Armen Garabedian – violin, Berj Garabedian – violin, Barry Gold – cello, Gary Grant – trumpet, flugelhorn, Maurice Grants – cello, Julian Hallmark – violin, Vahe Hayrikyan – cello, Norm Hughes – violin, Suzie Katayama – cello, Roland Kato – viola, Peter Kent – violin, Steve Kujala – flute, Gayle Levant – harp, Michael Markman – violin, Miguel Martinez – cello, Robert Matsuda – violin, Carole Mukogawa – viola, Sid Page – violin, Sandra Park – violin, Sara Parkins – violin, Joel Peskin – baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone, Bob Peterson – violin, Karie Prescott – viola, Dan Smith – cello, Rudy Stein – cello, Lesa Terry – violin, Josefina Veraga – violin, David Washburn – trumpet, flugelhorn, Evan Wilson – viola, John Wittenberg – violi

Everybody Loves a Happy Ending – released as a double A-side single from the same title album.It peaked at  #37 on the Italy music charts and #102 on the UK Singles Chart.

Chart Positions:

2004

#28 – US Adult Top 40 – “Call Me Mellow”

#46 – US Charts

2005

#28 – FRA Charts

#35 – GER Charts

#40 – UK Charts – “Closest Thing to Heaven”

#48 – SWI Charts

#86 – NL Charts

#45 – UK Charts

Curt Smith was born on June 24, 1961, at Bath, Somerset, England where he grew up and resided on the Snow Hill council estate (the topic of the “Snow Hill” track). He studied at the Beechen Cliff School.  He is a songwriter, English singer, synthesizer player, and bassist. He is popularly recognized for forming the Tears for Fears duo with his friend during their teenage years, Roland Orzabal. He later on became a solo artist and had released in May 2008 his third album called Halfway.

Smith and Orzabal met each other when they were just teenagers. The duo first formed a school band, for which Smith learned to play bass guitar by himself. After that they put together the ska-influenced band Graduate, wherein they released in 1980, their one and only album gaining a little achievement in Europe.

Smith and Orzabal then also became sessionists for the band called Neon. Their fellow band members were then unknown Rob Fisher and Pete Byrne who went on and form the Naked Eyes duo.

After the disbandment of Neon and Graduate, Smith and Orzabal later formed Tears For Fears. Their debut album, The Hurting, which came out in 1983 reached the top in the UK and created three international hit singles – “Pale Shelter”, “Mad World”, and “Change”– with Smith performing the vocals.

In 1985 their Songs from the Big Chair album became very successful; with the popular hits including “Head Over Heels” (that Smith co-wrote), “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” (with Smith performing the lead vocals), and “Shout”.

Both Smith and Orzabal spent the next few years recording The Seeds of Love album (1989), which then again proved to be a successful album. Smith’s final single as lead vocals with the group (and his only lead vocal track on the album) was “Advice For The Young At Heart”. Following another world tour, the growing tension between himself and Orzabal provoked Smith to call it quits in 1991 and he later moved to New York.

After his fruitful years with Tears for Fears, Smith released in 1993 Soul On Board, which is his first solo album. The album didn’t become successful in the UK, and it was never released in the U.S. Smith later told media that he only made the album to complete his record contract with Phonogram/Mercury.

After moving to New York, Smith created the band Mayfield with producer-guitarist Charlton Pettus, which also featured Russ Irwin. The band opted to do live performances almost always, as Smith wants to play gigs in small clubs. The band in 1997 released a self-titled album, which had a bit of success. Smith later released the album ‘Aeroplane’. In the U.S., this was a six song EP, but in Canada and elsewhere, it was fundamentally the earlier Mayfield album, which also had added a few songs from the U.S. EP.

According to their interview with iTunes in 2000, they claimed that the routine legal paperwork obligations led to Smith and Orzabal’s first communication in almost a decade. The two patched up their differences and started writing (with Smith’s associate Charlton Pettus) the 2004’s Everybody Loves a Happy Ending. Meanwhile, “Mad World” was covered by Gary Jules, which included on the Donnie Darko soundtrack. Having reached the top of the UK singles chart at Christmas 2003, it again sparked interest in the group’s previous achievement and their 1992 Greatest Hits album was re-released and re-entered the UK Top 10 for weeks, garnering its second UK platinum disc.

Smith began work on what came to be “Halfway, Pleased” in 2000, but the project was delayed when he started talking to Roland Orzabal once more after about 10 years of silence. Their discussion ended up in Tears For Fears reemerging for 2004’s Everybody Loves a Happy Ending which led to a world tour, so it wasn’t until 2006 that Smith returned to work on “Halfway, Pleased”. The semi-autobiographical album describes Smith’s relationships with his friends, children, and parents.

The XIII Bis Records, which is a French record label, released the album “Halfway, Pleased” in France in April 2007. Its 14 tracks had the original version of “Who You Are” (which was recorded by Tears for Fears on “Everybody Loves a Happy Ending”); a live version of “Snow Hill” from the bands ‘05 UK tour; the single version of “Seven Of Sundays” (also recorded as a duet with French singer SO); and a remake of “On Ira Tous au Paradis” (also available on A Tribute to Polnareff). Different music videos were made for “Seven of Sundays” –one of the duet with SO and the other is the solo track.

Smith and Pettus co-wrote the songs in the album except for  “Seven of Sundays”, which was co-written by Chesney Hawkes and Pettus ; Sophie Saillet and Smith collaborates in the song for the duet version.

Smith at last released the album in the U.S. and worldwide in May 2008 via his KOOK Media label. The KOOK release shows a slightly different track list, it is minus the Ponareff tribute and added two new acoustic tracks (“Seven of Sundays” and “Coming Out”). It was released under a Creative Commons license, which gave fans permission to perform, distribute and make use of the tracks so long as the uses are non-commercial and credited to Smith.

Smith didn’t have much live concert performances in the Los Angeles area for him to be able to support the album “Halfway, Pleased”. He announced in January 2009 that he would perform a weekly residency at The Standard Hollywood in West Hollywood, CA during the month of February 2009. He announced in the middle of February that The Standard had asked him to make an extension until March 2009 and he approved. He played a same residency there in October 2008.

Smith was married twice. Lynn Altman was his first wife; they tied the knot in the early 1980s, but the marriage didn’t last long. He then started a serious relationship in 1988 with Frances Pennington, a marketing executive, and in 1996, they got married. They reside in Los Angeles, California with their two siblings, Wilder and Diva.

In 2007, Smith became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Smith has always been a fan of Manchester United Football Club. He became a guest commentator for the Teams Soccer Radio Network’s UEFA Champions League 2008 Finals pre-game show.

Smith also tried acting. In the movie, The Dead Connection (1994) he played a desk clerk role and in another movie, The Private Public (2000) he played the role of a noteworthy professor.

Raoul and the Kings of Spain was Tears for Fears fifth album. Like the previous album, Elemental, it is fundamentally a solo effort by Roland Orzabal. The album was initially scheduled to be released by Mercury records but the project was cancelled after Tears For Fears left the label to sign with Sony/Epic Records. Sony released a new version of the album featuring a different track listing and new cover art in 1995.

The album reached the spot of  #41 in the UK charts and #79 in the US charts.

The album features a return by Oleta Adams, who duets with Orzabal on the track “Me and My Big Ideas”

The album was re-released in August 2009 by Cherry Pop Records, complete with seven bonus tracks

Mercury version (only available as a promotional CD)

1. “Raoul and the Kings of Spain” – 5:16

2. “Falling Down” – 4:55

3. “Secrets” – 4:42

4. “God’s Mistake” – 3:47

5. “Sketches of Pain” – 4:21

6. “Los Reyes Católicos” – 1:48

7. “Sorry” – 4:48

8. “Queen of Compromise” – 3:52

9. “Don’t Drink the Water” – 4:56

10. “Me and My Big Ideas” – 4:33

11. “Los Reyes Católicos” (Reprise) – 3:43

Sony/Epic version

1. “Raoul and the Kings of Spain” – 5:15

2. “Falling Down” – 4:55

3. “Secrets” – 4:41

4. “God’s Mistake” – 3:47

5. “Sketches of Pain” – 4:20

6. “Los Reyes Católicos” – 1:44

7. “Sorry” – 4:48

8. “Humdrum and Humble” – 4:10

9. “I Choose You” – 3:25

10. “Don’t Drink the Water” – 4:50

11. “Me and My Big Ideas” – 4:32

12. “Los Reyes Católicos” (Reprise) – 3:43

Raoul and the Kings of Pain –

is first single from the album. At the time it was released, the single reached #31 in the UK and became the band’s last Top 40 hit there for ten years (until 2005′s “Closest Thing to Heaven”). The single was not released in the United States.

The track was first performed two years before its release, on the band’s 1993 “Elemental” World Tour.

B-sides/Non-album tracks

* “All of the Angels”

* “The Madness of Roland”

* “Until I Drown”

* “Queen of Compromise”

* “War of Attrition”

* “Raoul and the Kings of Spain (acoustic)”

* “Break It Down Again (acoustic)”

As a consequence of the bands label switch to Sony in 1995, none of these tracks are featured on the Tears For Fears B-sides collection Saturnine Martial & Lunatic, which was released by Polygram  in 1996, the band’s old record company. However, the seven tracks were included on the 2009 re-release of the “Raoul” album by Cherry Pop Records.

“Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams” is a song by Tears for Fears, initially appearing as the B-side to their 1990 single “Advice for the Young at Heart”. The song was later on remixed by producer/DJ Fluke and released as a single in 1991. It became a number-one hit in the UK Dance Chart, while reaching number 70 on the UK Singles Chart.

Although still a Tears for Fears track, the Fluke remix single was credited only as “Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams”.

The songs title is taken from a short story written by the American writer Sylvia Plath, which was the title story in a collection of her short stories posthumously published in 1977.

My Life in the Suicide Ranks

When in Love With a Blind Man

Pharaohs

The Marauders

Tears Roll Down

New Star

The Body Wah

Lord of Karma

Bloodletting Go

Always in the Past

Sea Song

Empire Building

Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith have been inflexible in their dislike for the song in the years following its release, Orzabal stated, “the point we realized we had to change direction”, while Smith was even more straight in proclaiming it “the worst thing we’ve done”.

Chart Positions:

1983

#24 UK Singles Chart