Mad World

While living above a pizza restaurant in Bath and looking out over the city centre, Roland Orzabal wrote "Mad World" on acoustic guitar at the age of 19. He had been inspired to write a new wave song in the vein of Duran Duran's "Girls on Film", and later joked that Bath was not very mad at all, saying he should have called it "Bourgeois World". After a few false starts singing it himself, he suggested Curt Smith take the lead vocal, and suddenly it sounded fabulous.

The track was originally intended as the B-side for the band's second single, "Pale Shelter (You Don't Give Me Love)", but the record company felt it could be a single in its own right. Tears for Fears re-recorded it with producers Ross Cullum and Chris Hughes, the latter a former drummer with Adam and the Ants. Released in 1982 as the band's third single, it reached number three on the UK Singles Chart that November and became their first chart hit. It was also the 12th best-selling single in the UK that year.

The promotional video was the band's first, filmed in late summer 1982 in the grounds of Knebworth House and directed by Clive Richardson, who was then known for his work with Depeche Mode. Smith stared out of a window while Orzabal danced on a lakeside jetty, and friends and family were bussed up from Bath for a party scene that included Smith's mother.