[9][10] The album contained two US Billboard Hot 100 number one hits: "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", both of which also reached the top five in the UK with the latter winning the Brit Award for Best British Single in 1986.

Orzabal retained the Tears for Fears name as a solo project, releasing the albums Elemental (1993) – which produced the international hit "Break It Down Again" – and Raoul and the Kings of Spain (1995).

In 2021, Orzabal and Smith were honoured with the Ivor Novello Award for 'Outstanding Song Collection' recognising their "era-defining Tears for Fears albums" and "critically acclaimed, innovative hit singles".

Shortly afterwards, Orzabal and Smith became session musicians for the band Neon,[15] where they first met future Tears for Fears drummer Manny Elias.

Their new electronic direction was assured upon hearing the work of bands like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), Depeche Mode and the Human League.

[17][19] The likes of OMD and Soft Cell had popularised the "duo" presentation within synth-pop, inspiring Orzabal and Smith to package themselves as a two-man unit, initially under the name History of Headaches.

[23] As Tears for Fears, Orzabal and Smith intended to form the nucleus of the group and bring in surrounding musicians to help them complete the picture.

The album, produced by Chris Hughes and Ross Cullum, showcased guitar- and synthesizer-based songs with lyrics reflecting Orzabal's bitter childhood and his interest in primal therapy.

However, the band were ultimately unhappy with the results and so producer Chris Hughes was brought back into the fold and the "Mothers Talk" single re-produced for release in August 1984.

[26] Some regions even saw the release of limited edition 10" singles for these hits, and a variety of double packs and picture discs in addition to the regular 7" and 12" formats.

Following the album's release, the band went on a world tour that lasted most of the year, playing notably at the Montreux Golden Rose Rock and Pop Festival in May 1985.

[28] Also during the tour, Orzabal and Smith discovered an American female singer/pianist, Oleta Adams, who was performing in a Kansas City hotel bar, and whom they invited to collaborate on their next album.

[32] The same year, Orzabal and Stanley worked together on a side project named Mancrab and released a single, "Fish for Life", which was written for the soundtrack of the film The Karate Kid, Part II.

The track was written and produced by Orzabal and Stanley, and featured vocals by US singer/dancer Eddie Thomas, who was one of the dancers in the video for "Everybody Wants to Rule the World".

The official reason given for their non-appearance was that two of their backing musicians, guitarist Andrew Sanders and saxophonist Will Gregory, had quit due to the expiration of their contract; they were replaced by Alan Griffiths on guitar and Josephine Wells on saxophone for the remaining bulk of the 1985 world tour.

It was 1989 before the group released their third album, The Seeds of Love (on which Ian Stanley appeared for the last time as a member of Tears for Fears), at a reported production cost of over a million pounds.

Moving from various studios and using various sets of producers over many months, the band ultimately decided to scrap the recordings and take the reins themselves with assistance from engineer Dave Bascombe.

The length of the production impacted on the band's management company, who had financially over-extended themselves in other business matters and were hoping for an earlier release date to pay off their debts.

[36][37] The album retained the band's epic sound while showing increasing influences ranging from jazz and blues to the Beatles, the latter being evident on the hit single "Sowing the Seeds of Love".

[38] The second single from the album was "Woman in Chains" (a top 40 hit in the UK, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and the US), on which Phil Collins played drums and Oleta Adams—whom Orzabal would later guide to a successful solo career—shared vocals.

The band set out on an extensive "Seeds of Love" world tour sponsored by Philips to start recovering the debt incurred during the recording process.

The promo video for the single was a colourful fantasy that featured Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy riding in a hot air balloon.

A live performance at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, recorded in June 2005, was released on CD and DVD in France and Benelux.

Titled Secret World – Live in Paris, it was released on the XIII Bis label in early 2006 and became a best-seller, with over 70,000 physical copies sold in addition to downloads.

During this period, "Mad World" was re-recorded by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules for the soundtrack of the 2001's film Donnie Darko; a 2003 single release of the song reached number one in the UK for three consecutive weeks[47] and won Orzabal his second Ivor Novello Award.

In August 2009, the Raoul and the Kings of Spain album was also re-issued by Cherry Red Records, featuring seven bonus B-side tracks from the time of its original release.

[54] In August 2013, Tears for Fears released their first newly recorded material in nearly a decade, with a cover of Arcade Fire's "Ready to Start" made available on SoundCloud.

In an interview on BBC Radio Devon in October 2014, Orzabal stated that the band had now signed to Warner Music Group and that around five or six songs had so far been completed for the new album.

[63] In a July 2017 interview, Orzabal stated that the band had collaborated with songwriter/producer Sacha Skarbek on their seventh album, The Tipping Point, and divulged several song titles from it including "My Demons", "I Love You but I'm Lost", "End of Night" and "Up Above the World".

Prior to this, on 12 October, "I Love You but I'm Lost" was released as a single from a new 16-track Tears For Fears compilation album titled Rule the World: The Greatest Hits.