Best Tears for Fears Songs

The Top Ten

1 Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Grew up with this song. I love a lot of other songs by them, like Change and Mad World, but this song captures what the band represented and is just their best song. It's also one of the best songs ever.

Even though Saints Row 2 had this song, Grand Theft Auto V, on the other hand, scrapped this song and rejected it from the re-release of the game.

Listened to this song over 300 times and it's a true classic I never get bored of. Why? It just tells us why we want to take over the world.

2 Change

That guitar-xylophone combo is badass. Their best melody, powerful hook, and therefore my favorite TFF song.

3 Head Over Heels

This is probably my favorite TFF song, even though I could never truly pick one. There's something about the amazing combo of the main riff, the bass, the vocals, and the la la la's. This is a complex, truly outstanding song.

This is my jam! I love this song. Man, does this take me way back, talking about when I was five years old. The girl that used to babysit me would play this over and over. Thanks to this great tune, I remember my childhood perfectly.

Love this song so much and the music video is hilarious. Definitely one of my favorite music videos of all time.

4 Shout

This is an amazing song! The build-up towards the end is something that no other band can replicate! The lyrics are so meaningful, too. I am so surprised that this is only No. 5.

Certainly one of the best and most iconic songs of the 1980s. Always gets me singing along, and the other half now that I have her into it!

Love the drumming in this song. Maybe not as good as Everybody Wants to Rule the World, but more unique. Love 'em both.

5 Mad World

This is way better than any cover I've heard so far. "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had." Chilling!

So beautiful and hypnotic. What's not to love?

6 Pale Shelter

Awesome song. The whole idea of "you don't give me love/you give me pale shelter" is a cool metaphor. The vocals in this song are great too.

A song featured on two Rockstar Games and also one of my personal favorites. Why isn't this higher up on the list?

Just love this song and most all of their works. Love this band. This song makes me feel so good when I hear it.

7 Advice for the Young at Heart

Every second of this one is pure bliss. Possibly one of the greatest songs ever written.

Yeah - possibly one of the greatest songs ever written.

That intro and outro though! The best parts of the song.

8 Sowing the Seeds of Love

This is my personal favorite song from TFF. However, it is probably not the best song they ever made. Sowing the Seeds of Love has a strong melody and is very good from a composing standpoint. The song also benefits from Orzabal's strong, gritty, and round vocals on this particular track.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World is a runner-up due to its very good instrumentation and composition but falls short because of Curt's nasally, round, and honestly sub-par vocals (although his voice improved much as time went on, especially in the Seeds of Love album).

Mad World falls a bit short for me in instrumentation and vocals but is a lyrical masterpiece. This also goes for Pale Shelter. Overall, I would say that the best TFF song is Head Over Heels with its surprisingly good vocals from Curt and good instrumentation. However, this is not my personal favorite song from them.

9 The Way You Are

"Way You Are" is so epic, amazing, and dramatic. As I listen to it, I feel as if I'm trapped as a slave inside a rural British assembly line and can really visualize machinery and lonely green outdoors with grey rainy skies, reminiscent of my youth depression. But it tells me "Talk about it!" and I see the peacock on the Single album (containing the songs "The Marauders" and "Way You Are"). The extended version of this song is even better!

10 Suffer the Children

The Contenders

11 Famous Last Words

Absolutely incredible song. The way the ballad slowly builds and adds instruments before crashing into a massive rock segment is simply chilling, and the lyrics about overcoming insurmountable odds are really touching. Amazing end to a fantastic and somewhat underrated album.

Song represents the times about nuclear war. Chilling and romantic at the same time.

One of the few songs that actually made me cry.

12 Woman in Chains

This song is a masterpiece. It's just so well-crafted, how everything builds to the end, and the lyrics are truly poignant. Musical genius.

Such a deeply touching, passionate masterpiece. Roland and Oleta make such a great power duo. This deserves to be in the top 5 power ballads of all time.

Shares a message and just brings you into the zone of sadness, the zone you didn't know existed.

13 The Working Hour

Simply the finest hour for a band with some amazing songs. The music and vocals are sublime, creating a song with true atmosphere. The Working Hour is a masterpiece, deserving of a quiet room and high fidelity. While not a pop sensation or stadium anthem, in my opinion, this song is truly their best work.

This is their best song, and they've even admitted the fans love this song the most but don't perform it live anymore. Why! The Working Hour is their best song, if not their second best song after Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

14 Watch Me Bleed

This is a bit over-the-top and could be described as "emo" before there was "emo." I find it entertaining.

15 Mothers Talk

We can work it out! I always loved that part. This song is sadly underrated. I love it. The beat is just...wow.

Out of all their songs, this one has the sickest beat.

By far my favorite. So many moving parts make the song amazing.

16 Badman's Song