Today brings us to Part 2 of Disintegration Week — in which we celebrate the North American release of the eagerly anticipated Disintegration: Deluxe Edition — with our rundown of Robert Smith and Co.’s Top 10 most popular singles, as chosen by Slicing Up Eyeballs’ readers.
Like yesterday’s ranking of Disintegration’s tracks, this fairly unscientific poll is based on the results of our recently completed giveaway, which asked entrants to name their favorite Cure songs, and explain why. We tallied up all 380-plus votes, and, for the purpose of today’s poll, extracted the 10 highest-ranking songs that were released as singles.
The list — which, quite appropriately for this site, spans the band’s first decade, from 1979 to 1989 — is presented below; feel free to leave a comment at the end with your own picks. Thursday, we’ll be back with the band’s Top 10 B-sides, and, on Friday, we’ll post the full, ranked list of our readers’ 90-some favorite Cure songs.
DISINTEGRATION WEEK
TUESDAY: The Cure’s Disintegration tracks ranked
TODAY: Readers poll: The Cure’s Top 10 singles
THURSDAY: Readers poll: The Cure’s Top 10 B-sides
FRIDAY: Readers poll: The Cure’s Top 98 songs of all time
See the Cure’s Top 10 singles after the jump…
1. “A Forest”
Release date: March 28, 1980
Album: Seventeen Seconds
Chart position: 31, U.K. singles; N/A U.S. singles
Sample comment: “It’s been with me thru good and bad, thick and thin, good and evil, it creeps me out and makes me thrilled… I can forget anything the second I hear that bassline… again and again and again.” (AmandaCorrin)
2. “Just Like Heaven”
Release date: Oct. 5, 1987
Album: Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Chart position: 29, U.K. singles; 54, U.S. singles
Sample comment: “It’s really just a perfect song, the lyrics are detailed yet vague enough for the imagination, the vocal delivery is both joyous and heartbroken, each instrumental part fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. Fantastic.” (Rick)
3. “Pictures of You”
Release date: March 19, 1990
Album: Disintegration
Chart position: 24, U.K. singles; 71, U.S. singles
Sample comment: “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song so perfectly express what you go through when you lose someone. The repetitiveness in the instrumentation is also sad but still manages to convey a certain hopefulness.” (DGW)
4. “Fascination Street”
Release date: April 18, 1989
Album: Disintegration
Chart position: N/A, U.K. singles; 46, U.S. singles
Sample comment: “The pulsating sound that drives through it, guiding you … into the world the lyrics and music create. The song is sexy and mysterious… Almost desperate in its maddening and beautiful soundscape.” (Deirdre)
5. “Close to Me”
Release date: Sept. 9, 1985
Album: The Head on the Door
Chart position: 24, U.K. singles; N/A, U.S. singles
Sample comment: “Besides it being one of Robert Smith’s best uptempo ‘gloomy’ songs, it has an incredibly great video (all the band members stuck in the wardrobe that’s rolling downhill while singing the song). Great stuff!” (Bob O.)
6. “Inbetween Days”
Release date: July 15, 1984
Album: The Head on the Door
Chart position: 15, U.K. singles; 99, U.S. singles
Sample comments: “It just makes me feel better when I hear it.” (Chris Kouzes), plus “I think everyone can relate to it a little bit.” (Cindy), and “Because it got me into The Cure when it came out being a teenager.” (Albert)
7. “Lullaby”
Release date: April 10, 1989
Album: Disintegration
Chart position: 5, U.S. singles; 74, U.S. singles
Sample comment: “The first time I heard this song was in high school and it was mesmerizing. The sound of his whispering voice and orchestral dark sounds was nothing I’ve never heard before.” (Stephanie)
8. “Boys Don’t Cry”
Release date: June 15, 1979
Album: Non-album single
Chart position: N/A, U.K. singles; N/A, U.S. singles
Sample comments: “I was a teenage boy at the time the song came out and was really getting into new wave and punk music.” (Jim), and “It’s the first song of theirs I remember hearing when I got into them in the early ’80s.” (Imran)
9. “The Caterpillar”
Release date: March 26, 1984
Album: The Top
Chart position: 14, U.K. singles; N/A, U.S. singles
Sample comments: “Because some girls are caterpillars.” (L.), and “Brilliant and fun to sing along to.” (Christine Broglio), and “I’ll go with the first one to pop into my head.” (Karin), and “Because it’s springtime!” (Rvaix)
10. “Charlotte Sometimes”
Release date: Oct. 5, 1981
Album: Non-album single
Chart position: 44, U.K. singles; N/A, U.S. singles
Sample comment: “Like it so much that I named my daughter Charlotte Sometimes. The mood it creates is exactly the mood created by the Penelope Farmer story the song takes its lyrics from. Brilliant!” (Dan Klyn)
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Poll: ‘Same Deep Water as You’ best song off The Cure’s ‘Disintegration’
- Download: The Cure plays ‘Disintegration’ live at the Dallas Starplex in 1989
- Review: The Cure’s ‘Disintegration: Deluxe Edition’ expanded 3CD reissue
- Contest: Win The Cure’s 3CD ‘Disintegration: Deluxe Edition’ prize pack
- The Cure launches ‘Disintegration’ website, streams 20 unreleased tracks
- Audio: The Cure’s ‘Delirious Night,’ previously unreleased ‘Disintegration’-era demo
- The Cure’s ‘Disintegration’ gets 3CD deluxe reissue in 2010, plus ‘In Orange’ on DVD
GREAT list!
Love ‘A Forest’. Little surprised ‘Friday I’m In Love’ and ‘Lovesong’ didn’t make the cut. Another personal fave would be ‘Primary’.
I’m actually a little shocked that the list is missing both “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” and “The Lovecats”…but it’s forgivable with the inclusion of both “Fascination Street” and “The Caterpillar”. “The Caterpillar” is so good. :-)
I’m SO glad Friday I’m in Love and Love Song didn’t make the cut. Unfortunately, several of the above have been played so much to death that I can’t even listen to them anymore, though they are great songs. I think my favorites from this list are charlotte Sometimes and Pictures of You.
What SFGlam said re: Friday and Lovesong. What always spoiled Pictures for me was the single remix, which adds almost a reggae shuffle to proceedings and eliminates the gorgeous layering of the original as well as truncating the intro.
Primary probably should be on here, and I wouldn’t call either of them Top 10 material but Catch was a terrific, unlikely single, and Cut Here for me was the last great Cure moment on record – a wonderful lyric brilliantly delivered.
I agree with cd – Primary is an awesome song. My personal Cure top ten list is –
A Forest
Primary
Jumping Someone Else’s Train
Play for Today
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
How Beautiful You Are
The Upstairs Room
Halo
Disintegration
Let’s Go To Bed
But there’s so many more I love too. Pretty much everything prior to Wild Mood Swings is pure gold.
What youre saying is completely true. I know that everybody must say the same thing, but I just think that you put it in a way that everyone can understand. I also love the images you put in here. They fit so well with what youre trying to say. Im sure youll reach so many people with what youve got to say.