When British pop rock band Tears for Fears’ second album ‘Songs From The Big Chair‘ was released in 1985, the radio station I worked as a DJ for had it on heavy rotation immediately. Meaning, during a typical six hour shift on-air, I would play at least three songs from that album.
Me, loving the album more than anything I had heard in a long time, used to play a lot more than that.
My favorite song from ‘Songs From The Big Chair’, though, was ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’. It was Tears for Fears’ first number 1 hit single on the Billboard charts and, to this day, even though they have so many good songs, ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ is the one they are always known for the most.
‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World‘ showed up on the latest episode of Mr. Robot this week — August 24th, Season 2, Episode 8, “eps2.6_succ3ss0r.p12″, and it was the most deliciously perfect choice for the moment it soundtracked.
It wasn’t, however, the original Tears for Fears track. It was, instead, Angela Moss singing it during a karaoke night.
And, while it was beautifully done, and really did add something quite tragic to the scene, (and yes, she was terribly off key, but it worked) I still favor the original over anything.
Which is why I’m showcasing the original Tears for Fears track ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World‘ today. Because,the original is brilliant in every way.
Listen to it below. And, if you do not own the band’s ‘Songs From The Big Chair‘, and you love pop rock, you really should grab it. Over 30 years after its release, it is still one of the best pop rock albums ever released.