Celebrating Robert Smith's birthday with The Cure's 10 best songs

This hit is a quintessential 80’s dream-pop song. Smith wrote the lyrics about his then-girlfriend and current wife Mary Poole, who is also featured in the music video for the song. Smith told Blender Magazine in 2003, "the song is about hyperventilating - kissing and fainting to the floor. Mary dances with me in the video because she was the girl, so it had to be her. The idea is that one night like that is worth 1,000 hours of drudgery." With gorgeous guitar riffs and lyrics like, “spinning on that dizzy edge, I kissed her face and kissed her head, And dreamed of all the different ways I had to make her glow,” this song is a intoxicating and precious ode to Smith and Poole’s love that lives on to this day. An international success, it became one of the band’s first to break into the mainstream in the US, reaching the 40th spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988.

Similar to “Just Like Heaven,” this song also gives a glimpse into Smith and Poole’s love story. Ahead of their wedding, Smith claims he was unsure of what to give Poole as a wedding gift. Turning to his natural talents, he decided to write “Lovesong” for her. With simple and sweet lyrics like, “however far away, I will always love you. However long I stay, I will always love you,” the song is basically a wedding vow turned Alternative Rock banger. Released as a single off of their eighth studio album, Disintegration, it was the band’s only single to reach the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, peaking at number two. This aural proclamation of love continues to be celebrated to this day and has been covered by artists like Tori Amos, Death Cab for Cutie, and most notably Adele who did a gorgeous, bossa-nova-esque cover of the song for her iconic album, 21.

Easily the most iconic song from their discography, “Friday I’m in Love” is the perfect song for any rom-com soundtrack. The song has a light and breezy ambiance to it, with Smith singing, “I don't care if Monday's blue, Tuesday's gray and Wednesday too, Thursday, I don't care about you, It's Friday, I'm in love.” The lyrics are really just a catchy and powerful way for Smith to lament that he’s excited for the weekend, which is something we all can relate to. The song has been featured in films like He’s Just Not That Into You and About Time, and has been covered by the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Yo La Tengo, and more.

“Boys Don’t Cry” is an upbeat Pop-punk song that explores the emotions of a man who is trying to hide his vulnerable state, singing, “Hiding the tears in my eyes, 'cause boys don't cry.” Co-written by Smith and then-bandmates Michael Dempsey and Lol Tolhurst, the song serves as an ode to tear down the stereotype that men shouldn’t be allowed to express themselves emotionally. Smith told Rolling Stone in a 2019 interview, “...as an English boy at the time, you’re encouraged not to show your emotion to any degree. And I couldn’t help but show my emotions when I was younger... I couldn’t really continue without showing my emotions; you’d have to be a pretty boring singer to do that.” The song’s lyrics still resonate to this day as gender and sexuality stereotypes continue to be further explored and torn down.

Released in 1985 as a single off of the band’s sixth album, The Head On The Door, “Close to Me” features troubled lyrics that glide over a lively and electric beat. Smith sings, “I've waited hours for this, I've made myself so sick, I wish I'd stayed asleep today, I never thought this day would end, I never thought tonight could ever be, This close to me.” The lyrics seem to be referring to feelings of anxiety and yearning, with Smith unable to remain calm until the night comes. The music video for this song also possesses an eerie vibe with the members of The Cure stuck inside of a wardrobe that gets pushed off a cliff into an ocean. The Head On The Door is the first album released by The Cure that features songs solely written and composed by Smith, and the funky and encapsulating nature of “Close to Me” has made it one of our favorites.

With a slow and moody introduction, “A Forest” is reminiscent of The Cure’s early Goth Rock sound. Smith told the Chicago Tribune back in 1992 that he believes the song has the “archetypal Cure sound.” The song eventually picks up a faster tempo and lyrically finds the narrator following a girl into a dark forest, with Smith singing, “come closer and see, see into the dark, just follow your eyes.” Released in 1980 as a single from the band’s second album Seventeen Seconds, this song was the band’s first song to chart in the UK, reaching 31 on the UK Singles Chart, and the one which Smith credits to be, “the turning point when people started listening to the group and thinking we could achieve something, including me.”

“The Lovecats'' is the only song on this list that was released as a stand-alone single and not in conjunction with an album. The song has a silly and lighthearted feel to it, with lyrics like, “we should have each other to tea huh? We should have each other with cream?” Guided by a funky bassline from then-band member Phil Thornalley and Smith hissing and scatting all over the record, “The Lovecats” finds The Cure beginning to stray away from their early 1980s sound and moving into the brighter world of Pop. It was the band’s first single to reach the Top 10 in the UK, peaking at number seven and helping to solidify the band as a staple in their homeland.

The electric guitar and synth on this song are absolutely mystifying. Certainly one of their weirder tracks, “Lullaby” is undeniably addicting to listen to. The song begins with Smith whimsically whispering, leading him to lyrics like, “on candy stripe legs the Spiderman comes, softly through the shadow of the evening sun, stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead, looking for the victim shivering in bed.” The lyrics were inspired by Smith’s uncle, who would tell Smith scary stories before bedtime. The music video is also quite creepy, featuring ghosts and a giant spider attempting to eat Smith in bed. Both the song and the video are favorites in their homeland; the song is the band’s highest-charting single to date in the UK, peaking at number five on the UK Singles Charts, and the video won British Video of the Year Awards at the 1990 Brit Awards.

Just like “Close To Me,” this song features animated guitar-playing that glides beneath Smith’s dejected lyrics. While the beat of the song has a positive feel to it, the lyrics follow the narrator through a breakup, with Smith singing, “go on, go on, just walk away, go on, go on, your choice is made, go on, go on, and disappear, go on, go on away from here.” Smith is particularly skilled at making catchy, feel-good pop songs out of sorrowful situations in his life. By sonically coupling the extremes of happiness and sadness into one song, Smith clearly knows that the best way to get through a tough situation is to dance your way through.

Smith wrote this leading track off of The Cure’s debut album, Three Imaginary Boys, when he was just sixteen years old. Inspired by his boredom watching the tap water drip from a faucet on a Saturday night, Smith repeats “drip drip drip” throughout the song, which creates a rhythm in itself and guides the drum pattern. At the time Smith wrote the song, the band was performing under the pseudonym Easy Cure and had yet to be signed to a record label. After sending their demos off to labels in hopes of being recognized, “10:15 Saturday Night” caught the attention of one soon-to-be very important Polydor Records A&R scout, Chris Parry. As Parry describes it, “Demo tapes came in by the sack load to Polydor and I just grabbed a bunch every Friday night. So there I was, Sunday afternoon, browsing through the sports pages and I just heard ‘Drip drip drip’ and I thought ‘That’s rather nice’ so I played the tape again and '10.15 Saturday Night' and 'Boys Don’t Cry' were really very good.” Parry soon went on to sign The Cure to his newfound record label, Fiction Records, and consequently became the band’s manager.