In The Studio With

Tears for Fears

Recording an album that a million people purchase is no mean feat , but doing so is not always a benchmark of musical quality . Celebrity ( and notoriety ) , timing, even technology such as the viral internet video , can propel the likes of Milli Vanilli , Billy Ray Cyrus , Vanilla Ice , and Ashlee Simpson past the million sales mark , only to be relegated to trivia contests at best , punch-lines  at the worst . However , to get ten million or more people to buy your album is in no way trivial or a joke . It implies with it a measure of universal quality that transcends time , geography , and that most indefinable of attributes , taste . To sell through to more than ten million , the music’s appeal has to spread horizontally across a wide cross-section of age , ethnicity , economic , and lifestyle strata .

That’s precisely what Tears for Fears did 25 summers ago , displacing Bruce Springsteen‘s Born in the USA with only their second effort , Songs from the Big Chair . While the two individuals’ names , Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith , may indeed be the stuff of ’80s Trivia Night down at your local pub , the music contained on the ten million-plus …Big Chair has no indication of becoming comical any time soon , unless you count laughing all the way to the bank .

-Redbeard