Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Single & Video)"

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a song by English band Tears for Fears. Originally released in the UK on 22 March 1985 it was the band's ninth single release in the United Kingdom and the third from their second LP Songs from the Big Chair. It was their seventh UK Top 30 chart hit, peaking at number two in April 1985, and thus becoming the group's highest-charting UK single. In the US, it was the lead single from the album and gave the band their first Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit on 8 June 1985, remaining there for two weeks. It also reached number one on both the Hot Dance Club Play and Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales charts in the US. The song has since become the pinnacle of Tears for Fears' chart success.

In 1986, the song won "Best Single" at the Brit Awards.

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was somewhat of an afterthought during the recording of Songs from the Big Chair. According to Roland Orzabal, he initially regarded the song as a lightweight that would not fit with the rest of the album. Originally, the lyrics of the song were "everybody wants to go to war", which Orzabal felt was lacklustre. It was producer Chris Hughes who convinced him to try recording it, in a calculated effort to gain American chart success.

It was written and recorded in two weeks and was the final track to be added to the Songs from the Big Chair album. The shuffle beat was alien to our normal way of doing things. It was jolly rather than square and rigid in the manner of 'Shout', but it continued the process of becoming more extrovert.

— Roland Orzabal

The concept is quite serious – it's about everybody wanting power, about warfare and the misery it causes.

— Curt Smith

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a new wave song set in the key of D major with a 12/8 time signature and a tempo of 112 beats per minute.

The band have stated that the driving shuffle rhythm was influenced by Simple Minds' "Waterfront", released in 1983.


As was the case with the three hit singles from Tears for Fears' debut LP The Hurting, the song featured bassist Curt Smith on lead vocals.

In 1986, the song won "Best Single" at the Brit Awards. Band member and co-writer Roland Orzabal argued that the song deserved to win the Ivor Novello International Hit of the Year award, claiming that the winner—"19" by Paul Hardcastle—was not an actual song, but only a "dialogue collage".


In 2015, 30 years after its release, the song was honoured at the annual BMI Awards in London for achieving 6 million radio airplays.

The promotional clip for "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", filmed in early 1985, was the third Tears for Fears clip directed by music video producer Nigel Dick. It features Curt Smith driving an antique Austin-Healey 3000 sports car around numerous Southern California locales, including Salton Sea and Cabazon. Interspersed with these clips are shots of the full band performing the song in a London studio. Along with the clip for "Shout", the "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" video had a big hand in helping establish Tears for Fears in America, due to its heavy amount of play on the music video channel MTV.

"Everybody Wants to Run the World" is a re-recording of the "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". The reworked single was released in 1986 to promote the Sport Aid campaign, a charitable event held to raise money for famine relief in Africa. It was a success in the UK Singles Chart, becoming the band's sixth top 5 hit, peaking at number 5 in June 1986. The song also reached number 4 in Ireland.