I’ve put up two live versions, the first from 1985 when the song had just become a hit: (It’s also got a good beat and you can dance to it.) It made it to #2 on the British charts, and all the way to #1 in America. The guitar solos and drumming are also fantastic.

The song is great almost entirely because of its complex melody, though the voice of the lead singer, Curt Smith, is a major plus. I have no interpretation-only the emotion reaction mentioned above. Dominic Pino of National Review described the track as a “conservative pop song”, noting the lyrics’ tension between “personal ambition” and “channeling that personal ambition to good ends”, comparing these themes to James Madison’s concerns about private interest in the Federalist Papers. Curt Smith challenged this interpretation. Marc Ambinder from The Atlantic used the lyrics “Say that you’ll never, never, never need it / One headline, why believe it? / Everybody wants to rule the world” in his article about the United States government’s use of “original classified authority” and the abuse of power between the branches of government. A writer for The Economist called the track “a Cold War anthem” and noted its “timeless message”, stating that “the song’s lyrics speak to the anxieties of every age”.

The song’s lyrics have elicited different political interpretations. The lyrics, which you can see here, are mostly opaque, but strongly remind me of looming doom, particularly when Winston Smith shacks up with Julia before the hammer comes down in Ninteen Eighty-Four.īut the lyrics, while a bit haunting, are what you make of them. It was written by band founder Roland Orzabal along with Ian Stanley, and Chris Hughes. “ Everybody wants to rule the world“, released by “Tears for Fears” in 1985, is to me one of the few great pop songs to come out of the mid-Eighties.

Piano everybody wants to rule the world