Tears For Fears
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
'Everybody Wants to Rule the World' was written by Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley and Chris Hughes, and produced by Hughes.
The song was a "last-minute" addition during recording sessions for Tears for Fears' next album Songs from the Big Chair.
It was only included after Orzabal played two chords on his acoustic guitar for Hughes.
After this, it was recorded in just two weeks and added as the final track on the album.
It was initially going to have the lyrics "Everybody wants to go to war", but this was changed.
Joe Strummer of The Clash revealed in 1988 that he was in a restaurant and saw Orzabal, where he told him that "you owe me a fiver," stating that the title of 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World' had been taken from his song 'Charlie Don't Surf'.
According to Strummer, Orzabal reached into his pocket and gave him a five-pound note, confirming his point.
The song is about the desire that humans have for control and power. In 2017, Tears for Fears spoke about the song and its message, telling Yahoo! Music that the song's themes were still "just as poignant".
They said that they discussed the Cold War at the time of writing it, but that was the "US and Russia then, and now the concern is more with the US and [North] Korea." Many of the cryptic lyrics in it refer to that tense situation. However, what the track is about in general is the lust for power and control and the destructive consequences which manifest as a result. Thus it is also believed that “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” contains references to George Orwell’s classic book 1984. It is important to mention that 1984 is not only about war but also its fictional government’s all-encompassing desire to control the masses.