“Change” by Tears for Fears

"Change" was Tears for Fears' fourth single, released in early 1983 and taken from their debut album, The Hurting, and it proved that "Mad World" was no fluke: it became their second UK top-5 hit. Roland Orzabal wrote it, but it's bassist Curt Smith who sings it, and the song gave the duo their first entry on the American charts when it broke into the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1983. It went top 40 in plenty of other countries too.

Chris Hughes and Ross Cullum produced, and the record is crisp, busy new wave: Orzabal on guitar and keyboards, Smith on bass and keyboards, Ian Stanley adding more keys, and Manny Elias and Hughes pounding out a clattering, almost tribal percussion bed. "Change" bounces, all nervous energy and bright synthetic hooks.

Don't go looking for hidden depths. Orzabal has said there isn't much to the words, calling them a throwaway pop lyric. The UK single carried "The Conflict" on the flip. The 7-inch used a slightly shortened version of the album mix, while the 12-inch led with an extended remix, which later turned up on the UK cassette of The Hurting as a bonus track labelled the "New Version".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.