#1: "Songs from the Big Chair" by Tears for Fears

#1—My favorite album

Side One: Shout, The Working Hour, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Mothers Talk

Side Two: I Believe, Broken, Head Over Heels, Listen

Released: 1985

Chart Peak: #1 (U.S. Billboard 200)

Popularity: 5x Platinum (U.S.)

Oh, how I agonized over choosing this album over its follow-up, The Seeds of Love (1989). I even contemplated listing them as tied for #1, but we all know you cannot have a tie for #1. I can't even really tell you why I chose 1985 over 1989 except that 1985 was the best year of my adolescence, and the songs on Big Chair were the soundtrack of that summer and the fall semester that followed. 

We drove around all that summer—myself and my two closest friends, Glen and Jeff—and played this cassette until we could almost see through that thin brown tape. The singles are well known: "Shout" (#1), "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (#1), and "Head Over Heels" (#3), but the rest of the album is just as good as those blockbuster singles.

The heart of Tears for Fears is vocalist/guitarist Roland Orzabal, but every heart needs two sides; the other side of the group is bassist Curt Smith. They split after The Seeds of Love, and although Orzabal continued the record under the TFF name, it just wasn't the same without Curt alongside.

The Seeds of Love

If I grade Big Chair out at 100, then The Seeds of Love comes in at 99.5. A great album that could just as easily be #1 on my list, it adds to the group with the powerful voice of Oleta Adams, who is featured on that album's best song, "Woman in Chains."

There is one other thing that makes The Seeds of Love special to me—it's the last album I ever received. It was a gift from college roommate Mark Grossman, and he went to a lot of trouble to find it on vinyl; I still refused to give up my turntable for a CD player. The next year, I had no choice; there were fewer and fewer new recordings issued on vinyl at all, so Seeds is the last album to be placed into my collection.

Oleta Adams

Furthermore, Mark and I were able to see TFF perform live at the Fox Theater in St. Louis in the spring of 1990. Oleta Adams was on tour with them, singing and playing grand piano, and it was indeed a grand show. They played every song from Big Chair and Seeds, as well as the two hits from their original album, "Pale Shelter" and "Mad World."

Just this month, Roland and Curt announced through their Facebook page that they are recording new, original material for a 2014 release. Although it probably won't be on vinyl, it's a sure bet that I will add that work to my collection, and if they tour, there's not much that will keep me away (except time, distance, and money, of course!).

Rather than try to select one song from either album to feature on video, I'm giving you the complete concert video from their Seeds of Love tour, the one I saw, the one with Oleta Adams, the one in which you hear what makes Tears for Fears my favorite band of the 1980s and why Songs from the Big Chair is my favorite album from my vinyl collection.

Tears for Fears "Going to California" Live