Songfacts®:

• This politically charged tune was written by Tears For Fears' co-lead vocalist Roland Orzabal and keyboardist Ian Stanley. Orzabal, who also sang lead on the song, explained the meaning in a 1985 documentary on the band: "The song stems from two ideas. One is something that mothers say to their children about pulling faces. They say the child will stay like that when the wind changes. The other idea is inspired by the anti-nuclear cartoon book When The Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs."
• In the UK, this was released as the album's lead single. "This was a taster for Songs From The Big Chair, the second album, on which we unashamedly tried to become more commercial," Orzabal explained. "I was against it, but I was swayed by some of the people that I was working with. They wanted to come out all guns blazing, but I wasn't ready for that. It was from this point, though, that things really started to explode."
• In the US, "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" was the album's first single and the band's breakthrough hit in the country. A re-recorded version of "Mothers Talk" was released as the fourth single in the US and landed at #27 on the Hot 100.
• The strings used in the intro were sampled from an undisclosed Barry Manilow record.