Mothers Talk

"Mothers Talk"
Single by Tears for Fears
from the album Songs from the Big Chair
B-side
  • "Empire Building" (UK)
  • "Sea Song" (US)
Released
  • 10 August 1984 (UK)[1]
  • 1 April 1986 (US)
Recorded
  • 1984 (original)
  • 1986 (US remix)
Genre
Length
  • 5:09 (album version)
  • 3:53 (single version)
  • 4:14 (US remix version)
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Chris Hughes
Tears for Fears singles chronology
"The Way You Are"
(1983) 		"Mothers Talk"
(1984) 		"Shout"
(1984)
"Everybody Wants to Run the World"
(1986)
"Mothers Talk [US remix]"
(1986)
"Sowing the Seeds of Love"
(1989)

"Mothers Talk" is a 1984 song by the British band Tears for Fears. Written by Roland Orzabal and Ian Stanley and sung by Orzabal, it was the band's seventh single release (the first to be taken from their second album Songs from the Big Chair (1985) and fifth UK Top 40 chart hit. The song was released six months in advance of the album, and enjoyed moderate success internationally.

Orzabal notes that while "Mothers Talk" helped move the band in a new creative direction, he does not like the track. Producer Chris Hughes considers it important to the band's development, although he and engineer Dave Bascombe agree that the song is not one of Orzabal's best.[3]

  1. ^ "News" (PDF). Number One. 4 August 1984. p. 5. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  2. ^ Rolling Stone Staff (17 September 2014). "100 Best Singles of 1984: Pop's Greatest Year". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 27 August 2023. ...the track's electronic churn builds into a thump somewhere between circa '84 acts Art of Noise and Run-D.M.C.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference bbc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).