TEARS FOR FEARS announce 35th anniversary ‘Songs From The Big Chair’ reissue

TEARS FOR FEARS announce 35th anniversary 'Songs From The Big Chair' reissue 1

Spring 2020 sees the 35th anniversary of Tears For Fears iconic ten million-selling album Songs From The Big Chair. The 35th celebrations will include the broadcast of a ‘Classic Album’ documentary on BBC 4 on 14th February at 9.30 pm featuring all-new interviews with the band and people who worked on the record, the release of a limited picture disc version of the album and a reissue of the much sought after super deluxe 4CD/2DVD boxset which currently changes hands for hundreds of pounds. The long deleted super deluxe edition of the band’s debut album The Hurting will also be reissued.

Songs From The Big Chair was Tears For Fears second album and spawned classic worldwide hit songs such as the US #1 singles ‘Everybody Wants To Rule the World’ and ‘Shout’ as well as ‘Head over Heels’ and ‘Mother’s Talk’.

Upon its first release, Songs From The Big Chair spent 30 weeks in the UK top ten-album chart; a whole year in the top 30 and only left the charts 18 months later. The story was very much the same all over the world, the album spent five weeks at #1 in the US, and much like the UK, it was in the Billboard Chart for 18 months.

Looking back at the album Roland Orzabal commented, “Pop music was still a growth industry. It hadn’t sort of stagnated, stalled, diversified into streaming like it is nowadays. We were young, we were both good-looking and we had the right music. As we move further and further from that decade and you keep hearing “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, in various forms I do think it is an era-defining album”.

Curt Smith “You would never normally get three songs that strong in an album. But balance that out with tracks like “Listen”, “The Working Hour”; all those things that give it air and give it time to breathe I think is what makes it something more than just the sum of its parts. I think the album had a lot more depth than a lot of those other albums of that time. And albums of more depth tend to stick around longer”.

The new ‘Classic Album’ documentary, to be broadcast on BBC 4 on the 14th February, sees band members Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith speaking openly about that period of their career along with new interview with producer Chris Hughes, engineer Dave Bascombe, musician Ian Stanley, artist John Grant and the band’s then A&R man Dave Bates. This all-new documentary will be followed by another chance to see the band’s BBC Radio 2 In Concert from 2017.

The album is being made available for the first time as a limited edition picture disc, and due to overwhelming demand; the super deluxe version will be reissued. The 4CD/2DVD box set features a multitude of remixes, live tracks, BBC sessions, B-sides, previously unreleased tracks and 5.1 surround sound and stereo mixes of the album mixed by four-time Grammy nominee, Steven Wilson.

TEARS FOR FEARS announce 35th anniversary ‘Songs From The Big Chair’ reissue

TEARS FOR FEARS SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR PICTURE DISC ALBUM CD 2DVD SUPER DELUXE EDITION

RELEASED 13th MARCH 2020 ON UMC/VIRGIN

SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR – LIMITED EDITION PICTURE DISC

SIDE ONE

Shout

The Working Hour

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Mothers Talk

SIDE TWO

I Believe

Broken

Head Over Heels

Listen

SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR – SUPER DELUXE EDITION – 4CD/2DVD

DISC ONE

Songs from The Big Chair

Shout

The Working Hour

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Mothers Talk

I Believe

Broken

Head Over Heels

Listen

B-Sides

The Big Chair

Empire Building

The Marauders

Broken Revisited

The Conflict

The Working Hour (Piano Version)

Pharaohs

When in Love with A Blind Man

Sea Song

DISC TWO
“Edited Songs”: 7″ Versions

The Way You Are (7” version)

Mothers Talk (Short Version)

Shout (Edit)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Single version)

Head Over Heels (Dave Bascombe 7” version)

I Believe (A Soulful Re- Recording)

Everybody Wants To Run The World

International 7″ Versions

The Way You Are (Edit)

Mothers Talk (US Remix)

Shout (US Single Version)

Everybody Wants to Run the World (Running Version)

Head Over Heels (Hughes 7″ Edit aka Radio Mix)

Mothers Talk (Video version)

Listen (Clean intro)

Interview with Curt and Roland

DISC THREE

Remixed Songs”: 12″ Versions, Dubs and more

The Way You Are (Extended version)

Mothers Talk (Extended version)

Shout (Extended remix)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Extended version)

Broken / Head Over Heels / Broken (Preacher Mix)

Mothers Talk (Beat Of The Drum Mix)

Shout (US remix)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Urban mix)

Mothers Talk (US remix alternate)

Shout (Dub)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Instrumental)

Shout (Acapella)

DISC FOUR
“Unreleased Songs”: Promos, Demos & Live tracks

At The BBC

Head Over Heels (Radio 1 Richard Skinner Session)

The Working Hour (Radio 1 Richard Skinner Session)

Broken (Radio 1 Richard Skinner Session)

Live at Massey Hall

Mothers Talk

Broken/Head Over Heels

Memories Fade

The Working Hour

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Shout

Early Mixes
Mothers Talk (Early mix)

The Way You Are (Early mix)

Broken (Early mix)

Shout (Early mix)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World (alt 7″ with brass)

DISC 5 DVD AUDIO

Steven Wilson 5.1 Mix

Shout

The Working Hour

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Mothers Talk

I Believe

Broken

Head Over Heels

Listen

Steven Wilson Stereo Mix

Shout

The Working Hour

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Mothers Talk

I Believe

Broken

Head Over Heels

Listen

DISC 6 – DVD VIDEO

Scenes From The Big Chair (985 documentary) (1hr 14 mins)

Interview with producer Chris Hughes (2005) (35 mins)

Music Videos

The Way You Are (Music video)

Mothers Talk (Music video)

Mothers Talk (alternative UK video)

Shout (Music video)

Everybody Wants to Rule The World (Music video)

Head Over Heels (Music video)

I Believe (Music video)

Mothers Talk (US version)

Everybody Wants to Run the World (Music video)

Tears for Fears at the BBC

The Way You Are (Top Of The Pops)

Mothers Talk (Top Of The Pops)

Mothers Talk (Top Of The Pops)

Shout (Top Of The Pops)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Wogan)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Top Of The Pops)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Top Of The Pops)

The Working Hour (Wogan)

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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