Top 10 Alert!
Song#: 4022
Date: 09/02/1989
Debut: 53
Peak: 2
Weeks: 15
Genre: Psychedelic Pop
Pop Bits: This duo's second album, 1985's Songs from the Big Chair, would be a major hit reaching #1 and eventually selling over five million copies. It got a boost from a pair of #1 hits including the gold selling "Shout." After everything for the album was wrapped up, the pair began to work on a follow up LP. They began working in the studio with a couple of producers, but things were not going well. The sessions didn't go the way the duo wanted and they chose to scrap the recordings and begin again with producer Chris Thomas, who had produced their previous album. Still, the process and results were not matching the duo's expectations. They wanted to move from the programmed approach of their previous work to something more live and band-oriented. In order to get what they wanted, the duo decided to produced the album themselves (with help from engineer David Bascombe). Nearly three years later after two false starts and a lot of money spent (around $1.5 million), Tears for Fears finally finished The Seeds of Love. This first single was issued out and it would do quite well reaching #1 at Modern Rock, #4 Rock, and #29 AC. On the Pop chart it would just miss out on the #1 spot. The hit helped the album get to #8. By the end of November, the album would go platinum.
ReduxReview: This swirling psychedelic pop tune certainly had roots in works by the Beatles. It was an interesting and unusual choice for a lead single, but it ended up working out. The track veered off in various directions yet still maintained a sense of hooky pop. The arrangement was dense and complex, which hit all my like buttons. I loved the tune right from the first listen and ran out to get the album as soon as I could. I liked it better than Songs from the Big Chair and thought the duo hit a creative peak. While this song may not have had the longevity legs of their Top 10's from their previous album, it remains a psychedelic pop classic of sorts from the decade.
ReduxRating: 9/10
Trivia: According to group member Roland Orzabal, he got the idea for this song from a radio show that he was listening to. The show focused on British song collector Cecil Sharp. Sharp began documenting and collecting folk songs around the British Isles sometime around 1899 after he became interested in traditional English folk dancing. While Sharp wasn't the first to start documenting old folk tunes, he became one of the most prolific collecting over 1,600 songs. He would also expand his venture over to the US where he collected songs from the Appalachia Mountain region. Although Sharp had been jotting down tunes from musicians involved with traditional dance, he didn't fully start collecting folk tunes until 1903 when he encountered a gardener by the name of John England who was singing a song called "Seeds of Love." It was this story on a radio program that sparked Orzabal's creativity and led him to start writing "Sowing the Seeds of Love."
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