Every year produces its musical surprises and success stories, and Tears For Fears was certainly one of 1985’s most pleasant. Their second album, Songs From The Big Chair, managed to please intellectuals, audiophiles, and teenyboppers alike with angst-ridden tales inspired by the traumatic childhood experiences of leaders Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, and psychologist Arthur Janov’s controversial book The Primal Scream. This may seem like pretty heady stuff for the Top 40, but Orzabal, Smith, keyboardist/writer lan Stanley, and drummer/percussionist Manny Elias also produced a collection of songs with infectious rhythms and tenacious pop hooks—an album you could both think and dance to. Not surprisingly, Songs From The Big Chair was a major worldwide hit. The LP hit the top spot in virtually every country, propelled there by three of the year’s best singles: the grooving “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” the tribal “Shout,” and the complex love song […]

March 1986 Issue