Tears for Fears / discography

Tears for Fears live (2008)

This discography is an overview of the musical works of the British New Wave - band Tears for Fears . According to sources and record awards, she has sold more than 14.9 million records to date, over 3.7 million of them in her home country alone. The most successful release of Tears for Fears is the album Songs from the Big Chair with over 6.9 million units sold.

Albums

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1983	The hurting	DE15 (23 weeks) DE	-	-	UK1 platinum (65 weeks)UK	US82 gold (20 weeks)US	First published: March 7, 1983 Sales: + 900,000
1985	Songs from the Big Chair	DE1 gold (27 weeks)DE	AT22 (1 month) AT	CH5 (16 weeks) CH	UK2 × 3 Triple platinum (83 weeks)UK	US1 × 5 Quintuple platinum (68 weeks)US	First published: February 25, 1985 Sales: + 6,950,000
1989	The Seeds of Love	DE5 gold (37 weeks)DE	AT13 (2 months) AT	CH8th gold (11 weeks)CH	UK1 platinum (30 weeks)UK	US8th platinum (34 weeks)US	First published: September 25, 1989 Sales: + 1,875,000
1993	Elemental	DE26 (11 weeks) DE	-	CH24 (10 weeks) CH	UK5 silver (7 weeks)UK	US45 gold (21 weeks)US	First published: June 7, 1993 Sales: +610,000
1995	Raoul and the Kings of Spain	DE88 (3 weeks) DE	-	CH42 (2 weeks) CH	UK41 (1 week) UK	US79 (5 weeks) US	First published: October 9, 1995
2004	Everybody Loves a Happy Ending	DE35 (4 weeks) DE	-	CH48 (4 weeks) CH	UK45 (1 week) UK	US46 (3 weeks) US	First published: September 14, 2004

Live albums

• 2006: Secret World - Live in Paris
• 2010: Live from Santa Barbara

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1992	Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92)	DE7th gold (24 weeks)DE	AT34 (2 weeks) AT	CH14th gold (9 weeks)CH	UK2 × 2 Double platinum (37 weeks)UK	US53 platinum (13 weeks)US	First published: March 2, 1992 Sales: + 1,925,000
2017	Rule the World: The Greatest Hits	-	-	-	UK12 gold (12 weeks)UK	-	First published: November 10, 2017 Sales: + 100,000

More compilations

• 1986: Everybody Wants to Mix the World (Remix compilations; release: only in Argentina)
• 1991: Flip (B-page compilation; release: only in Japan)
• 1996: Saturnine Martial & Lunatic
• 2000: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Tears for Fears
• 2001: Classic Tears for Fears
• 2001: The Collection (UK:silver)
• 2001: The Working Hour: An Introduction to Tears for Fears
• 2001: Shout: The Very Best of Tears for Fears
• 2003: Tears for Fears: The Ultimate Collection
• 2003: Collection
• 2006: Sowing the Seeds of Love: The Best of Tears for Fears
• 2006: gold
• 2007: Famous Last Words - The Collection

EPs

• 1989: Woman in Chains
• 2014: Ready Boy & Girls?

Singles

Chart placements

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1982	Mad World The Hurting	DE21 (22 weeks) DE	-	-	UK3 silver (17 weeks)UK	-	First published: September 20, 1982 Sales: + 200,000
1983	Change the hurting	-	-	-	UK4th silver (9 weeks)UK	US73 (6 weeks) US	First published: Jan 24, 1983 Sales: + 200,000
	Pale Shelter The Hurting	DE25 (11 weeks) DE	-	-	UK5 (12 weeks) UK	-	First published: April 18, 1983
	The Way You Are single track	-	-	-	UK24 (8 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 21, 1983
1984	Mothers Talk Songs from the Big Chair	-	-	-	UK14 (9 weeks) UK	US27 (12 weeks) US	First published: August 6, 1984
	Shout Songs from the Big Chair	DE1 (20 weeks) DE	AT6 (2½ months) AT	CH1 (15 weeks) CH	UK4th silver (20 weeks)UK	US1 Gold + gold (digital) (19 weeks)US	First published: November 19, 1984 Sales: + 1,300,000
1985	Everybody Wants to Rule the World Songs from the Big Chair	DE11 (17 weeks) DE	AT19 (2½ months) AT	CH13 (8 weeks) CH	UK2 platinum (25 weeks)UK	US1 (24 weeks) US	First published: March 2, 1985 Sales: +650,000
	Head over Heels Songs from the Big Chair	DE55 (4 weeks) DE	-	-	UK12 (9 weeks) UK	US3 (20 weeks) US	First published: June 10, 1985
	Suffer the Children The Hurting	-	-	-	UK52 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 19, 1985
	I Believe Songs from the Big Chair	-	-	-	UK23 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: September 30, 1985
1986	Everybody Wants to Run the World Charity Single ( Sport Aid 1986)	-	-	-	UK5 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: June 1, 1986
1989	Sowing the Seeds of Love The Seeds of Love	DE11 (20 weeks) DE	AT17 (2½ months) AT	CH11 (11 weeks) CH	UK5 (9 weeks) UK	US2 (15 weeks) US	First published: August 22, 1989
	Woman in Chains The Seeds of Love	DE45 (11 weeks) DE	-	-	UK26 (10 weeks) UK	US36 (14 weeks) US	First published: November 6, 1989 with Oleta Adams
1990	Advice for the Young at Heart The Seeds of Love	DE51 (15 weeks) DE	-	-	UK36 (4 weeks) UK	US89 (4 weeks) US	First published: February 19, 1990
	Famous Last Words The Seeds of Love	-	-	-	UK83 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 2, 1990
1992	Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down) Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92)	DE40 (11 weeks) DE	-	-	UK17 (5 weeks) UK	-	First published: February 10, 1992
1993	Break It Down Again Elemental	DE66 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	UK20 (5 weeks) UK	US25 (20 weeks) US	First published: May 17, 1993
	Cold Elemental	-	-	-	UK72 (1 week) UK	-	First published: July 19, 1993
1995	Raoul and the Kings of Spain Raoul and the Kings of Spain	-	-	-	UK31 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: September 25, 1995
	God's Mistake Raoul and the Kings of Spain	-	-	-	UK61 (1 week) UK	-	First published: October 1995
2005	Closest Thing to Heaven Everybody Loves a Happy Ending	-	-	-	UK40 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: February 21, 2005

More singles

• 1993: Goodnight Song
• 1994: Elemental
• 1996: Secrets
• 2005: Everybody Loves a Happy Ending / Call Me Mellow
• 2006: Secret World (promo single, only in France)
• 2017: I Love You but I'm Lost

Video albums

• 1983: The Videosingles
• 1984: In My Mind's Eye (Live at the London Hammersmith Odeon)
• 1985: Scenes from the Big Chair
• 1990: Sowing the Seeds
• 1990: Tears for Fears: Live at Knebworth '90
• 1990: Going to California (Live from Santa Barbara)
• 1992: Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92)
• 2003: Tears for Fears - 20th century / Universal Masters
• 2006: Secret World (Live in Paris)

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Canada 1985: for the single Everybody Wants to Rule the World 1992: for the album Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92) 1993: for the Elemental album  Netherlands 1989: for the album The Seeds of Love  Spain 1990: for the album The Seeds of Love Platinum record  Canada 1985: for the album The Hurting 1985: for the single Shout  Netherlands 1989: for the album Songs from the Big Chair

2 × platinum record  Canada 1989: for the album The Seeds of Love 7 × platinum record  Canada 1990: for the album Songs from the Big Chair

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Germany (BVMI)	-	3 × gold3	-	750,000	musikindustrie.de
Canada (MC)	-	3 × gold3	11 × platinum11	1,250,000	musiccanada.com
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	gold1	platinum1	150,000	nvpi.nl
Switzerland (IFPI)	-	2 × gold2	-	50,000	hitparade.ch
Spain (Promusicae)	-	gold1	-	50,000	Sólo éxitos: año año, 1959-2002
United States (RIAA)	-	4 × gold4th	7 × platinum7th	9,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	5 × silver5	gold1	8 × platinum8th	3,720,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	5 × silver5	15 × gold15th	27 × platinum27

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b c} chart sources:
   • Tears for Fears in the German charts on Musicline.de
   • Tears for Fears in the Austrian charts on AustrianCharts.at
   • Tears for Fears in the Swiss charts on Hitparade.ch
   • Tears for Fears in the Official UK Charts (English)
   • Tears for Fears on the US charts on Billboard.com