Producer Chris Hughes considers it important to the band's development, although he and engineer Dave Bascombe agree that the song is not one of Orzabal's best.

[4] The band's previous producer, Chris Hughes, was then brought back into the fold and the song was re-recorded and finally released as a single in August 1984.

Along with its B-side, "Empire Building", "Mothers Talk" was one of the first Tears for Fears songs to demonstrate a creative use of sampling.

This was the second Tears for Fears single for which Phonogram would use the picture disc and coloured vinyl gimmicks as a promotional tool, as well as the first one to feature multiple 12" releases offering different remixes of the track.

The other idea is inspired by the anti-nuclear cartoon book When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs.While America saw "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" as the first single release from the Songs from the Big Chair LP, "Mothers Talk" was eventually released there as the fourth and final single from the album in April 1986, peaking at no.

The original version, directed by photographer Laurie Lewis, was a performance clip set in a blue toned room and interspersed with shots of a young girl being studied by scientists.

The third and final video, again directed by Nigel Dick, was made for the "US Remix" of the song in early 1986 and portrayed a family preparing a bomb shelter for nuclear fallout, in keeping with the theme of Raymond Briggs' graphic novel When the Wind Blows.