"Mad World" is a song by the British band Tears for Fears. Written by Roland Orzabal and sung by bassist Curt Smith, it was the band's third single release and first chart hit, reaching #3 on the UK Singles Chart in November 1982. Both "Mad World" and its B-side, "Ideas as Opiates", would turn up on the band's debut LP The Hurting the following year. The song would eventually become Tears for Fears' first international hit, reaching the Top 40 in several countries between 1982 and 1983.
Two decades later, the song made a popular resurgence when it was covered in a much slower, minimalist style by composers Michael Andrews and Gary Jules for the soundtrack to the movie Donnie Darko in 2001, and then again in the hit 2006 video game Gears of War. This version reached #1 in the UK in December 2003, and also became an international hit.
Read more about Mad World: Background, Meanings, Song Versions, B-side, Music Video, Track Listings, Chart Positions, Michael Andrews and Gary Jules Version, Other Versions and Covers
Famous quotes containing the words mad and/or world:
“I have lived in both worlds. And I think I prefer, to the indifferent, haphazard, money- mad hurry of the Outside World, that of my world; that sympathy and understanding grown shadowy since I have been away from it so long, still is more real to me than the world I am in now. Not only the spangles and the gay trappings made it colorful; there was an inner color that warmed the soul. And that I miss.”
—Josephine Demott Robinson (1865–1948)
“And though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,
The sun himself withheld his wonted speed,
And hid his head for shame,
As his inferior flame
The new-enlightened world no more should need;
He saw a greater Sun appear
Than his bright throne or burning axle-tree could bear.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)