Songs from the Big Chair is the second studio album by English pop rock band Tears for Fears, released on 25 February 1985 by Phonogram Records. The album peaked at number two in the UK and at number one in the US, becoming a multi-platinum seller and the band's most successful studio album to date. Songs from the Big Chair spawned the commercially successful singles "Mothers Talk", "Shout", "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", "Head over Heels", and "I Believe". Background Originally, the album was to be titled The Working Hour, but Roland Orzabal fought to change it to Songs from the Big Chair, which was derived from the 1976 television film Sybil about a woman with multiple personality disorder who only feels safe when she is sitting in her analyst's "big chair". The title of the album reflects the band's view of being targeted by a hostile English music press at the time. In an interview for the 2006 deluxe version booklet, Curt Smith noted that "We were very introverted on The Hurting; it was a very dark album. We found the need to be more outgoing on The Big Chair". The band started to generate new material around the beginning of 1984. The first song written for the album was "Head over Heels", which the band played live during a tour undertaken between the two studio albums. While a mostly-instrumental track called "The Big Chair" (which includes dialogue samples from the film) was released as the B-side of "Shout" in 1984, it was not included on the album (but was available on its "special limited edition" cassette version, released in the UK in 1985). Writing and recording The album was recorded at The Wool Hall in 1984. Conceptually and musically, it was a development of the band's previous studio album The Hurting (1983), re-introducing guitars to their electronic sound and an overall lighter approach than before. Early songs written for the album included "Head over Heels" and "The Working Hour". "Mothers Talk" was released months before the album as a single. These songs, as well as "We Are Broken", were all performed on Tears for Fears 1983 tour. The song "Shout" became a central work during the recording of the album, and the band and producer Chris Hughes spent months working on that track alone. The songwriting uses many different styles and influences, particularly progressive rock as a