 Mad World  is a song by the British band Tears for Fears, written by Roland Orzabal and sung by bassist Curt Smith.ad World was originally written on acoustic guitar when Orzabal was 19, it was a deliberate attempt to write something in the vein of Duran Duran's  Girls on Film . After a few false starts with Orzabal on vocals, Smith took over and suddenly it sounded fabulous.