Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Who’s talking
6 speakers1Transcript218 turns · 34 min
You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Hrishikesh Hirway. This episode of Song Exploder is brought to you by Booking.com. My wife and I have been thinking about visiting some of our friends in Philadelphia this summer. And so while we've been daydreaming, I've been looking on Booking.com to check out places where we might stay in Philly. I put in our dates, and there are over a hundred options listed. So I'm gonna start narrowing things down. I'm gonna choose places that have an eight or higher rating and a king bed available. And then I'm gonna focus on hotels in one of my favorite neighborhoods, the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. And look, there's a hotel here with a nine-point-o rating. And there's a note on the site that says, "Couples in particular like this hotel. They rated it a nine point five for a two-person trip." All right. So look at that. That sounds pretty awesome. You can find exactly what you're booking for. Booking.com, booking dot yeah. Book today on the site or in the app. Summer. It's when we share more time, more memories, and more photos. And at AT&T, the iPhone 17 Pro is your summer essential. Its center stage front camera auto adjusts the frame to fit everyone into group selfies. You don't even have to turn your phone. And AT&T makes sharing those pics with everyone easy. Right now at AT&T, ask how you can get the iPhone 17 Pro on them with eligible iPhone trade-in, any condition. Requires trade-in of iPhone 15 Plus or higher, excluding iPhone 16E and 17E. Requires eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply. Subject to change. Visit att.com/iphone or visit an AT&T store for details. [musical interlude] This episode contains explicit language. [upbeat music] Tears for Fears is a duo formed in nineteen eighty-one in Bath, England, by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. They've sold over thirty million albums, starting with their first, The Hurting, which went to number one in the UK. But it was their second album, Songs from the Big Chair, that made them international stars. It came out in nineteen eighty-five and had huge singles like Shout and Head Over Heels. But their biggest hit is Everybody Wants to Rule the World. It won Best Single at the Brit Awards in nineteen eighty-six, and it's been streamed over two billion times. So I talked to the two of them about how they, along with their producer Chris Hughes and keyboard player Ian Stanley, made a song that would help define the sound of the eighties.
[singing] Acting on your best behavior. Turn your back on mother nature. Everybody wants to rule the world.
I am Roland Orzabal.
And I am Curt Smith.
Before we get into this song, I was wondering if you two could tell the story of how you first met and started a band.
Well, we first met at the door of my apartment flat in Bath.
Snow Hill, yep.
In Snow Hill, which is a council estate, so I guess in America you call them the projects. And I was, I was grounded for getting in a fight.
How old were you?
Fourteen, maybe?
Fourteen, fourteen.
Fourteen, I think. Roland came with a mutual friend. He was at a different school than I was in, in
2Episode notes
Tears for Fears is a duo formed in 1981 in Bath, England by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. They’ve sold over 30 million albums, starting with their first, The Hurting, which went to number one in the UK. But it was their second album, Songs from the Big Chair, that made them international stars. It came out in 1985, and had huge singles like “Shout” and "Head Over Heels.” But their biggest hit is “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” It won Best Single at the BRIT Awards in 1986, and it’s been streamed over 2 billion times. So I talked to the two of the...