Tears for Fears
| Tears for Fears | |
|---|---|
 Roland Orzabal (left) and Curt Smith (right) performing in Hanover, 2008 |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Bath, England, United Kingdom |
| Genres | New Wave, pop rock, synthpop |
| Years active | 1981 – present |
| Labels | New Door, Gut, XIII Bis, Epic Records, Phonogram Records, Mercury, Fontana |
| Associated acts | Graduate Neon Oleta Adams |
| Members | |
| Roland Orzabal Curt Smith |
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| Past members | |
| Ian Stanley Manny Elias |
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Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.
Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesizer bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into mainstream rock and pop, which led to international chart success.
Their platinum-selling debut album The Hurting was number one on the UK Album Chart, while their second album Songs from the Big Chair reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, becoming 5 times platinum in the United States.[1] Following the release of their third platinum-selling album The Seeds of Love in 1989, Smith and Orzabal parted company. The duo reformed in 2000. To date, Tears for Fears have sold more than 22 million albums worldwide, including over 8 million in the U.S.[2]
Career
Formation
Orzabal and Smith met as teenagers in their home city of Bath, Somerset. The duo became session musicians for the band Neon,[3] where they first met future Tears For Fears drummer Manny Elias. Neon also featured Pete Byrne and Rob Fisher who went on to become Naked Eyes. Smith and Orzabal's professional debut came with the band Graduate, a Mod Revival/New Wave act. In 1980, Graduate released an album, Acting My Age, and a single "Elvis Should Play Ska" (referring to Elvis Costello, not Presley). The single just missed the Top 100 in the UK, though it performed well in Spain and in Switzerland.
By 1981, Orzabal and Smith were becoming more influenced by artists such as Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno. They departed from Graduate and formed a band called History of Headaches, a moniker which was then changed to Tears for Fears. The plan was for Orzabal and Smith to form the nucleus of the group and bring in surrounding musicians to help them complete the picture.
The band's name was inspired by Primal Therapy, developed by the American psychologist Arthur Janov, which gained tremendous publicity after John Lennon became Janov's patient in 1970. In Prisoners of Pain (1980) Janov suggested tears as a replacement for fears.[4] In a 2004 interview with VH1 UK, Orzabal and Smith said that when they finally met Janov in the mid 1980s, they were disillusioned to find that he had become quite "Hollywood" and wanted the band to write a musical.
Tears for Fears were signed to Phonogram Records, UK in 1981 by A&R manager Dave Bates. Their first single as Tears for Fears, "Suffer the Children" (produced by David Lord), was released on that label in November 1981, followed by the first edition of "Pale Shelter" (produced by Mike Howlett) in March 1982, though neither of these releases was successful.
The Hurting and first international successes
The band achieved their first taste of success with their third single, "Mad World", which reached no.3 in the UK in November 1982.[5] Their first album, The Hurting, was released in March 1983. For this LP (and the next), keyboard player and composer Ian Stanley and drummer Manny Elias were considered full bandmembers, though Smith and Orzabal were still essentially the frontmen and public face of the band.
The album, produced by Chris Hughes and Ross Cullum, showcased synthesizer-based songs with lyrics reflecting Orzabal's bitter childhood. The Hurting may be considered Tears for Fears' only true concept album, as references to emotional distress and primal scream therapy are found in nearly every song. The album itself was a big success and had a lengthy chart run (65 weeks) in the UK, where it reached no. 1 and platinum status. It also reached the Top 20 in several other countries and yielded the international hit singles "Mad World" (top 5 hit in South Africa), "Change" (top 40 hit in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and South Africa), and a re-recorded version of "Pale Shelter". All three of these singles reached the Top Five in the UK.
Towards the end of 1983, the band released a new, slightly more experimental single, "The Way You Are", intended as a stopgap while they worked on their second album. The single was a Top 30 hit in the UK, but did not come close to matching the success of their three previous hits, despite a national concert tour in December of that year (captured on the "In My Mind's Eye" live video release). The single, which heavily featured sampling and programmed rhythms, led to a departure in Tears for Fears' musical approach. In the liner notes to their 1996 B-sides compilation album Saturnine Martial & Lunatic they wrote that "this was the point we realised we had to change direction", although the somewhat experimental style of the single continued to be reflected in their forthcoming B-sides.
Songs from the Big Chair and worldwide fame
A change of direction was initially instigated in early 1984 as they began working with a new producer, Jeremy Green, on their new single "Mothers Talk". However, the band were ultimately unhappy with the results and so producer Chris Hughes was brought back into the fold and the "Mothers Talk" single reproduced for release in August 1984. A distinct departure from their earlier 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 beginning of the band's international fame.
This Top 5 hit paved the way for their second album, Songs from the Big Chair (released in February 1985), which entered the UK album chart at no.2 and remained in the upper reaches of the chart for the next 12 months. They did away with the predominantly synth-pop feel of the first album, instead expanding into a more sophisticated sound that would become the band's stylistic hallmark. Anchored around the creative hub of producer Hughes, Stanley and Orzabal, the new Tears for Fears sound helped to propel Songs from the Big Chair into becoming one of the year's biggest sellers worldwide, eventually being certified triple-platinum in the UK and quintuple-platinum in the US (where it remained the #1 album for five weeks in the summer of 1985).[6]
The album's success came in conjunction with the array of hit singles it yielded: "Mothers Talk" (rerecorded yet again for its US release in 1986), "Shout" (#4 UK, #1 in the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and a huge hit in other territories, in fact one of the biggest of the 1980s), "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", (their highest-charting UK and Irish hit at #2 and another #1 in the US 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 variety of double packs and picture discs in addition to the regular 7" and 12" formats.
Following the album's release, the band went on a world tour that lasted most of the year. During 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 album's title was inspired by the book and television miniseries Sybil, the chronicle of a woman with multiple personality disorder who sought refuge in her analyst's "big chair", Orzabal and Smith stating that they felt each of the album's songs had a distinctive personality of its own. The band had also recorded a track entitled "The Big Chair", which was released as the B-side to "Shout" but was not included on the album. They also released a video collection/documentary entitled Scenes from the Big Chair later in the year, while their first two earliest singles were re-released, this time both reaching the Top 75 of the UK Singles Chart.
In February 1986, having completed the lengthy and exhausting Big Chair world tour, the band were honoured at the Brit Awards where they won the Best British Single award for "Everybody Wants To Rule The World".[7]. The band were also nominated for Best British Group and Best British Album, and Chris Hughes was nominated for Best Producer.[7] The band performed the song at the ceremony, which became the final public performance of drummer Manny Elias who left the group shortly afterwards. Orzabal and Stanley then worked together on a side project named Mancrab and released 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, and featured vocals by US singer/dancer Eddie Thomas.
Live Aid
On 13 July 1985, Tears for Fears were scheduled to perform at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia for Bob Geldof's Live Aid charity event. However, on the morning of the historic event, it was announced that the band had pulled out of the show. The official reason given for their non-appearance was that two of their backing musicians had quit - guitarist Andrew Saunders and saxophonist Will Gregory, due to the expiration of their contract. In place of appearing, the band pledged to donate proceeds from their world tour played in Tokyo, Sydney, London and New York. They were incongruously replaced by blues rock group George Thorogood And The Destroyers.
In 1986, a slightly rewritten version of one of their biggest hits was recorded and released for the British fund-raising initiative Sport Aid, a splinter project of Band Aid in which people took part in running races of varying length and seriousness 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.
The Seeds of Love
It was 1989 before the group released their third album, The Seeds of Love (on which Ian Stanley appeared for the last time as a TFF member), at a reported production cost of over a million pounds. The album was written largely by Orzabal along with keyboardist Nicky Holland, who had toured with the band on their "Big Chair" world tour in 1985. Moving from various studios and using various sets of producers over many months, the band ultimately decided to scrap the recordings and take the reins themselves with assistance from engineer David Bascombe. Much of the material was recorded in jam sessions and later edited down. The length of the production left the band with towering debt and a record company eager to cash in on lost earnings. The album retained the band's epic sound while showing increasing influences ranging from jazz and blues to The Beatles, the latter being evident on the hit single "Sowing the Seeds of Love" the first record ever played on Atlantic 252, the UK and Ireland longwave radio station. The second single from the album was "Woman in Chains" (a Top 40 hit in the UK, in France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and the US), on which Phil Collins played drums and Oleta Adams — whom Orzabal would later guide to a successful solo career — shared vocals. The album was a worldwide success, entering the UK album charts at no. 1, making the Top 10 in the US (though charting lower there than its multi-platinum predecessor) and in numerous other countries, eventually going on to sell millions of copies worldwide. The band set out on an extensive "Seeds of Love" world tour sponsored by Philips to start recovering the debt incurred. The show would be captured on the "Going To California" video as the singles "Advice For The Young At Heart" and "Famous Last Words" delivered modest chart success.
A 64-page companion book, simply titled "Tears for Fears - The Seeds of Love", was released by Virgin Books in 1990 and offered extensive insight from Orzabal, Holland and Adams into the songwriting and production process for the album, as well as the musical scores for each track and rare promotional photographs from the era.
Break-up and solo careers
After The Seeds of Love, Orzabal and Smith had an acrimonious falling out and parted company in 1991. The split was blamed on Orzabal's intricate but frustrating approach to production and Smith's desire to slow down the pace of their work. Prior to The Seeds of Love, Smith had also been deeply affected by the breakdown of his marriage to Lynn Altman, whom he had met in his teens. Orzabal kept the band name alive by releasing the 1992 hit single "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)" in order to promote the greatest hits collection Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92) which featured every single to reach the Top 20 either in the UK or internationally, apart from the Sport Aid fundraiser.
Smith relocated to New York City, and in 1993 he released his first solo album, Soul On Board. The album was a commercial failure and Smith himself has said on numerous occasions that he despised it, alleging that he only made it in order to fulfill his recording contract. In 1995 he met local songwriter and producer Charlton Pettus. The two formed a self-described "organic" partnership, writing simple, melody-based songs and recording them at home on vintage analogue equipment. The result was released under the name Mayfield and a short US tour followed.
Second line-up: Elemental and Raoul and the Kings of Spain
In 1993, Orzabal (still under the name Tears for Fears) released the album Elemental together with longtime collaborator Alan Griffiths and co-producer Tim Palmer. It yielded the international hit "Break It Down Again" (Top 20 in the UK, France, Italy, etc.) and was supported with another successful world tour, including a college tour of the US where "Break It Down Again" reached #25.
The album was a Top 10 hit in the UK, France and Italy, and Top 30 in several other countries. Although it charted considerably lower in the US than the previous two studio albums (#45), it still earned a Gold disc there for sales of over half a million copies. The singles "Cold", "Elemental" and "Goodnight Song" met with minor chart success in certain territories.
Orzabal, still working with Griffiths and Palmer, released another Tears for Fears album, Raoul and the Kings of Spain, in 1995. This was a more contemplative work that delved into his own Spanish heritage and showcased a new Latin musical influence (Raoul was originally the name Orzabal's parents wanted to give him, and is also the name of his own first son). Orzabal stated that it was not a concept album but that there was a theme, namely that of familial relationships. The album was not a commercial success by Tears for Fears standards, though minor chart success came via the single release of the title track (top 40 in the UK) and (to a lesser extent) the single "God's Mistake". Raoul and the Kings of Spain also included a reunion with Oleta Adams who collaborated with Orzabal on the track "Me and My Big Ideas".
A worldwide tour followed, including dates in Latin America, though Orzabal declined to tour his native UK this time except for a single show in London. The release of the album was delayed for nearly a year due to a last-minute label switch from Mercury to Epic (part of Sony Music), and the ensuing confusion (Mercury had already begun promotion) did not help the album's chances either. Although the track listing for the album had been changed at the record company's request, Sony did not extend Tears for Fears' contract following the album's release.
In 1996 a B-sides collection, Saturnine Martial & Lunatic, was released on Mercury, which included B-sides and some rare tracks from the successful 1982-93 period. The liner notes, written by Orzabal and Chris Hughes, gave fans an insight into the songwriting process as well as a rare glimpse of self-deprecating humour regarding the tracks which they would rather forget.
Remasters and other projects
In 1999, Mercury Records released remastered editions of Tears for Fears' first three albums which included B-sides, remixes, and extended versions. Supervised by producer Chris Hughes, the remasters also included new liner notes for each album providing details and new insights into the music.
Due to record company mergers and acquisitions in the late 1990s, Tears for Fears' back catalogue was eventually placed into the Universal Music fold.
After undertaking production work and some songwriting for the Icelandic singer/songwriter Emiliana Torrini on her 1999 album Love in the Time of Science, Orzabal re-teamed with Griffiths and released the album Tomcats Screaming Outside, released on Eagle Records as a solo project under his own name. Whereas Tears for Fears' work had become guitar-based, Tomcats Screaming Outside showcased a predominantly electronic style and a darker approach. The album was released in April 2001 in the UK and Europe, but had the unfortunate coincidence to be released on September 11, 2001 in the US, the same day the United States experienced its 9/11 terrorist attack, and ultimately drew little notice outside the group's core fan base.
Reunion: Everybody Loves a Happy Ending
In 2000, routine paperwork obligations led the duo to re-established contact with each other after Orzabal had to sign a business document on Smith's behalf.[8] As Smith tells it, Orzabal's manager contacted Smith's manager about the possibility of reuniting, and Smith flew to Bath (where Orzabal still lived) and they had dinner. After ten minutes of awkwardness, they got along and decided to work on a new album together. [9]
The songwriting sessions included Charlton Pettus (Smith's collaborator since the mid-1990s), and fourteen songs were written and recorded in less than six months. The ensuing album, Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, was scheduled for release on Arista Records in late 2003, but a change in management at Arista led to a last-minute label switch to New Door, a new offshoot of Universal Music, and delayed the release until September 14, 2004. Two US tours followed, and the 2004 tour included an unrehearsed guest appearance by Oleta Adams at the Kansas City show for a performance of "Woman in Chains". The song "Who Killed Tangerine?" was used in the movie Fever Pitch.
Everybody Loves a Happy Ending was released in the UK and Europe in March 2005 on Gut Records, shortly after the comeback single "Closest Thing To Heaven" became the first Tears for Fears UK Top 40 hit in a decade. The promo video for the single featured Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy riding in a hot air balloon. The European releases of the album contained all fourteen tracks recorded during the ELAHE sessions, and a brief tour of larger UK venues followed in April.
In 2005, the band began discussions with Universal Music for the release of a new comprehensive anthology of their work to date, including a new track entitled "Floating Down The River". However, the subsequent release (at least in the US) was a compilation issued as part of Hip-O Records' generic "Gold" series, a Universal subsidiary that specialises in budget-priced back catalogue compilations.
A 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 released on the XIII Bis label in early 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 successful that Smith chose the comparatively small French label to release his 2007 solo album, Halfway, Pleased.
In 2006, Songs from the Big Chair was re-issued again by Universal Music, this time as a 2-disc Edition with additional B-sides and rarities added, expanding further than the 1999 remastered version. The release did not include the lyrics as the band had intended with the original release, but came with a 24 page booklet including rare photographs and newly written liner notes. The 28-track set contained four sections, with the first disc containing the original album and various B-sides taken from the earlier 1999 remastered edition. It also included the piano version of "The Working Hour" which had previously only been available as a rare promotional item. The second disc contained various 7" versions of the singles (including the aforementioned "The Way You Are", the re-recording of "I Believe", and the 1986 US remix of "Mothers Talk"), followed by various 12" remixes from the era.
In August 2009, the Raoul and the Kings of Spain album was also re-issued by Cherry Pop Records, featuring seven bonus B-side tracks from the time of its original release.[10]
In April 2010, Tears For Fears joined the reformed 80s pop group Spandau Ballet on their 7-date tour of Australia and New Zealand, before a 4-date headlining tour of their own in South East Asia (Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan) and a 17-date tour of the USA.[11]
Musical legacy
An acoustic cover of "Mad World" by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules was featured on the soundtrack to the 2001 film Donnie Darko and reached the UK no. 1 spot over Christmas 2003. "Head Over Heels" was also used in the film. Despite chart-topping success in the US, Tears for Fears themselves had yet to reach the top spot in the singles chart of their native country. However, the success of the single also led to the re-emergence of the Tears Roll Down greatest hits album, which returned to the UK top ten (№6) in early 2004, spending eight weeks on the album chart and earning its second UK platinum disc a dozen years after its release. Adam Lambert performed "Mad World" in a style similar to the Jules cover on American Idol, season 8.
Nas had sampled "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" for the song Rule on his 2001 album Stillmatic. Kanye West did an 'interpolation' of "Memories Fade" on his 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak dedicated to his deceased mother called "Coldest Winter".
Kirk Franklin sampled the song "Shout" for his song "Let It Go" on his 2005 album Hero. Also, a cover of "Shout" by American hard rock group Disturbed features on their album The Sickness, released in 2000.
The band Relient K makes reference in their song "In Love with the 80's (Pink Tux to the Prom)" by saying "...and my favorite band will always be Tears for Fears."
The band Kids in the Way did a screamo cover of "Head Over Heels" in their 2005 album Apparitions of Melody.
Dizzee Rascal and James Cordon released "Shout for England", an unofficial World Cup 2010 song in England which reached number one, sampling the chorus from "Shout".
Discography
| Year | Album | UK[12] | US | BPI Certification | RIAA certification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | The Hurting | 1 | 73 | Platinum | Gold |
| 1985 | Songs from the Big Chair | 2 | 1 | 3× Platinum | 5× Platinum |
| 1989 | The Seeds of Love | 1 | 8 | Platinum | Platinum |
| 1992 | Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92) | 2 | 53 | 2× Platinum | Platinum |
| 1993 | Elemental | 5 | 45 | Silver | Gold |
| 1995 | Raoul and the Kings of Spain | 41 | 79 | — | — |
| 1996 | Saturnine Martial & Lunatic | — | — | — | — |
| 2004 | Everybody Loves a Happy Ending | 45 | 46 | — | — |
| 2006 | Secret World Live in Paris | — | — | — | — |
See also
- List of number-one hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
References
- ↑ "American certificates: searchable database". RIAA. http://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
- ↑ RIAA Certifications : The Hurting, Gold/SFTBC, 5*Platinum/TSOL, Platinum/Greatest Hits 82-92, Platinum/Elemental, Gold.
- ↑ Neon.
- ↑ Names: bands find them in odd places, Anchorage Daily News, October 24, 1986.
- ↑ http://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=5481
- ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0ifpxqr5ldse~T5
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Brit Awards 1986 Winners
- ↑ Vaziri, Aidin (19 September 2004). "Pop Quiz: Roland Orzabal Of Tears For Fears". San Francisco Chronicle (online edition) (San Francisco, U.S.). http://articles.sfgate.com/2004-09-19/entertainment/17445359_1_fears-split-feels-roland-orzabal. Retrieved 15 August 2010.
- ↑ http://www.kevinpollakschatshow.com/archive/?cat=70
- ↑ Raoul reissue - Cherry Pop Records.
- ↑ Curt Smith Official Website - 2010 Tour dates.
- ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 550-551. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
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