Tears For Fears Celebrate 40 Years of ‘Songs From the Big Chair’

Tears For Fears’ Songs From the Big Chair is celebrating its 40th anniversary. A range of expanded editions on vinyl, streaming, and CD arrive on November 14 via UMR Records and are available for pre-order now.

Tears For Fears’ second record, Songs From The Big Chair, was originally released on February 25 1985. It went on to top the US charts and produce five hit singles: “Mothers Talk,” “Shout,” “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” “Head Over Heels,” and “I Believe.”

A Limited Edition 2LP transparent red vinyl features the original unused artwork and tracks previously unavailable on vinyl, including “Shout (Alternative Mix),” “The Working Hour (Piano Version),” “Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Alternative Single Version),” “Mothers Talk (Early Mix),” “Broken (Demo),” and “Listen (Clean Intro).” The multi-platinum album’s original tracklist is presented in full on a limited edition 1LP Coke Bottle Clear vinyl and a limited 1 LP picture disc. A 3CD deluxe set features the original album and b-sides. Disc two is titled “Edited Songs From The Big Chair” while disc 3 is “Remixed Songs From The Big Chair.”

Songs From The Big Chair was the followup to the band’s 1983 debut The Hurting, which yielded anthems such as “Mad World,” “Change,” and “Pale Shelter.”

1989’s Seeds of Love was the last collaboration between Roland Orzabal (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Curt Smith (vocals, bass, keyboards) until 2004’s Everybody Loves A Happy Ending. They released a “Best Of” collection in 2017, Rule the World, and in 2022 returned with their first studio album in 17 years, The Tipping Point. In October 2024, Tears for Fears released Songs for a Nervous Planet, featuring eighteen live tracks recorded at the FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin, Tennessee on July 11, 2023, one of the dates on their Tipping Point World Tour.

Shop the Tears for Fears’s Songs from the Big Chair anniversary editions on vinyl or CD now.