“Everybody Wants To Rule The World” was a big one for Tears For Fears (to state the obvious): The 1985 single is one of the band’s two No. 1 songs in the US, along with “Shout.” It remains popular today, too, as it’s easily their most-played track on Spotify with well over 600 million streams. It’s also become a karaoke favorite, so much so that even singer Curt Smith busted it out in a packed karaoke bar one time. The way he tells it, though, nobody realized it was him singing.
In a new NME interview, Smith discussed his relationship with the cast of Psych (he’s appeared on the show as himself multiple times) and an anticlimactic night of karaoke they all had together, saying, “They’re all big karaoke singers and dragged me along one time. I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I got up and sang one of our songs?’ So in the middle of a full karaoke bar, I went up and sang ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ and no one in there paid me any attention. No one realized it was me and it was hilarious!”
He was also asked if he enjoys hearing when rappers like Ye, Nas, and Drake sample Tears For Fears in their music, and he said, “Yes, but only when the song turns into something else. We had issues with the Kanye one [“Coldest Winter“] because he thought he deserved 80 percent of the publishing when all he did was steal the entire song and change the lyric. But the Nas version [“Rule“] I liked. I don’t know the Drake song [“Lust For Life“]. I would have thought my children would have played that to me, but clearly they’re not on the ball!”
Check out the full feature here and revisit “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” below.