Originally, the album was to be titled "The Working Hour", but Roland Orzabal fought to change it to "Songs from the Big Chair", which was derived from the 1976 television film "Sybil" about a woman with multiple personality disorder who only feels safe when she is sitting in her analyst's "big chair". While a mostly-instrumental track called "The Big Chair" (which includes dialogue samples from the film) was released as the B-side of "Shout" in 1984, it was not included on the album (but was available on its "special limited edition" cassette version, released in the UK in 1985).