Songs from the Big Chair is Tears for Fears second album, released in 1985. This still remains their highest selling album. The album reached no.2 in the UK (it stayed in the Top 10 for over six months and in the Top 40 for over a year), it also reached no.1 in the US, for five weeks. It contained a thread of international hit singles, including: “Head Over Heels”, “Mothers Talk”, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Shout”.
The album title was taken from the 1976 television film Sybil, which is about a woman with multiple personality disorder who only feels safe when she is sitting in the “big chair” of her analyst.
The record is still regarded highly:
In the percolating, loping, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” Tears for Fears captured perfectly the zeitgeist of the mid-’80s while unfeasibly managing to also build a timeless, dreamy, pop classic. Songs From the Big Chair is one of the best statements of the 80s decade.
The band had completed a long promotion and touring schedule for the album, they took an extensive hiatus from the music industry. In 1989, their third album, The Seeds of Love, marked their return. A companion video documentary entitled “Scenes from the Big Chair” was released in late 1985
The album was re-issued and remastered in 1998 by MFSL adding two bonus tracks (“Shout [Extended Mix]” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World [Extended Mix]“).
In 1999 the album was re-issued and remastered on CD with bonus tracks, including remixes and b-sides. Three of the tracks (“Broken Revisited”, “The Conflict” and “The Marauders”) are in fact from The Hurting time.
A Deluxe Edition 2-disc format of the album was re-released again in 2006 with the complete collection of B-sides and a lot of alternate remixes and versions of the album’s tracks.
Songs from the Big Chair was one of the best releases of the 80′s. And that is saying a lot. The 80′s were a very fertile time for pop/rock music. I recently saw Tears for Fears in Boston and they did several songs from The Big Chair. And opened with “Everybody wants to rule The World”. They sounded as good as they did back then. And Roland Orzabel looks like he hasn’t aged at all! I was jealous.