Tears For Fears - Mad World

These days 'Mad World' is considered to be a balled performed by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules. However the original version was recorded by Tears For Fears. in 1982. Written by Roland Orzabal and sung by bassist Curt Smith, it was the band's third single release and first chart hit, reaching number 3 on the UK Singles Chart in November 1982. Both 'Mad World' and its b-side, 'Ideas As Opiates', would turn up on the band's debut LP The Hurting the following year. The song would eventually become Tears for Fears' first international success, reaching the Top 40 in several countries between 1982 and 1983.

Two decades later, the song made a popular resurgence when it was covered in a much slower, ballad-like style by composersMichael Andrews and Gary Jules for the soundtrack to the movie Donnie Darko. This version reached no.1 in the UK in December 2003.

'Mad World' began life as the intended b-side for Tears for Fears' second single 'Pale Shelter (You Don't Give Me Love)'. The band decided, however, that it may be something people would like to hear on the radio and held back its release, instead waiting to issue the song as a single in its own right after re-recording it with Chris Hughes, a former drummer with Adam And The Ants.

Roland Orzabal states that the song came when I lived above a pizza restaurant in Bath and I could look out onto the centre of the city. Not that Bath is very mad - I should have called it "Bourgeois World"! Curt Smith says that 'Mad World' was the first single off the finished album. The intention was to gain attention from it and we'd hopefully build up a little following. We had no idea that it would become a hit. Nor did the record company.

Lyrically the song is pretty loose. It throws together a lot of different images to paint a picture without saying anything specific about the world. It's very much a voyeur's song. It's looking out at a mad world from the eyes of a teenager.

The video for 'Mad World', filmed in late summer 1982, was Tears for Fears' first music video. It features a gloomy looking Curt Smith staring out a window, while Roland Orzabal performs a bizarre dance outside on a lakeside jetty. The clip was directed by Clive Richardson who was notable for his work at that time with Depeche Mode.

Click the link below to download the following:
Video
Single Version
Martin Eyerer Mix
Spiral Tribes Mix
World Remix
Remix Version
Mad World Mix
ABH Remix
DMC Remix
Suffer The Children - B-Side
Ideas as Opiates - B-Side

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=2ccb7d0cd98a6267aaca48175a79d1c3ac81c4906e12f952b8eada0a1ae8665a

Tears For Fears - Mad World - Video