Album Anniversary - February 25, 2015

Today is the 30th anniversary of four landmark albums: Tears for Fears' "Songs from the Big Chair," 'Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry," Run-D.M.C.'s "King of Rock," and the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club.

Video: Tears for Fears - "Head Over Heels"

Video: 'Til Tuesday - "Voices Carry"

Video: Run-D.M.C. - "King of Rock"

Video: Simple Minds - "Don't You (Forget About Me)"

Album Anniversary - September 27

Today is the 10th anniversary of "Antics" by Interpol.

It is also the 20th anniversary of "Monster" by R.E.M., "Ruby Vroom" by Soul Coughing, and the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack.

It is also the 25th anniversary of "The Seeds of Love" by Tears for Fears

And finally the 30th anniversary of "Forever Young" by Alphaville

Highlights from My Vinyl Collection, Part 14

This is the fourteenth installment of "Highlights from My Vinyl Collection," an appreciation of great music, not necessarily rare finds or expensive imports. This is not about "deleted Smiths singles and original, not rereleased - underlined - Frank Zappa albums," as Rob Gordon so eloquently put it, though a small few select gems might appear every now and again.



Tears for Fears - The Hurting

Most of my peers were likely to own Tears for Fears' sophomore release, Songs from the Big Chair. It was a huge mass audience breakthrough for the duo of Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal, spawning two #1 hit singles in the US, as well as another in the top 3. And, as much as I truly love that album, I am definitely more of a fan of their debut, The Hurting. For this look at a record in my collection, I will try to avoid repeating my Treblezine review, but that might be somewhat difficult. History definitely looks kindly now on this album, at least outside the UK, where the album hit #1 on the charts and produced four singles, three of which hit top 5 status. In other words, in TFF's home turf, they knew what a gem they had on their hands from the very beginning. Those three singles, "Mad World" (now made famous by the cover version in Donnie Darko), "Pale Shelter," and "Change" are three of my favorite songs from the entire decade. The first time I heard "Change," seeing the video on MTV, I was immediately hooked. I had to hear more. So, it was quite a day for me when I found this vinyl copy of the album (with the above pictured cover, which happens to be the "international" version, whatever that means) for $5.99, slightly more expensive than most of my great finds, but well worth it. Tears for Fears has long been my audio therapy and now it will continue to be, just in a warmer format.

Great Songs from My Favorite Year in Music: 1985, Part 31

Tears for Fears - "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" & "Head Over Heels"





(Single Releases: March & June 1985)
Tears for Fears was always a dark horse candidate to be one of my favorite bands in 1985. They never cracked the holy triumvirate of Smiths, Echo, and New Order, nor the top five if you include DM and the Cure, but they were not far behind. Truth be told, if you had asked me in 1983, with the release of The Hurting (soon to be a "Highlights from my Vinyl Collection" entry), they would have easily been higher ranked. It's not that I don't like Songs from the Big Chair, far from it. Like everyone else, I loved that album, but rather than an individual passion, they were a collective love. We all owned that album in some format, didn't we? Weren't we issued this one in 1985 once "Shout" hit #1 on the US pop charts? I like that song and would have included it had it not been issued as a single in 1984. But, the above two singles were issued in 1985, along with the album, and remain among my favorite TFF tracks. The opening guitar notes of "Rule the World" are unmistakable, leading into Curt Smith's great falsetto. Though Roland Orzabal later came to be known as the more prominent "voice" of TFF, I was always a Curt Smith fan. His vocals on "Pale Shelter" and "Change," as well as other shared vocal tracks on that first album, showcased a wonderful dynamic between the two, and a more sensitive side to the band. Later, I would become even more of a Curt Smith fan when he would appear on Kevin Pollak's Chat Show and Psych. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was Tears For Fears' second #1 hit single, deservedly so, but my favorite was always "Head Over Heels," especially as it appears on the album, with a live version of "Broken" as a capstone. The video, as presented above, is somewhat absurdist, which prompted a fairly funny version with "literal lyrics," but I think the song is fine without it. Now, many are reminded of Donnie Darko when they hear "Head Over Heels," and at one time, The Dennis Miller Show when they heard "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." I am just reminded at how amazingly rich in music 1985 really was.