It was October 5, 1987, when the Cure released the third single from the band's seventh studio album, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me: "Just like Heaven." One of the most popular song in Cure's catalog among both hardcore and casual fans, this instantly classic single is the very definition of timeless. We're recognizing this monumental day in Cure history by looking back with five fun facts about "Just Like Heaven."
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1. The song was the result of a writing regimen meant to keep Robert Smith from hitting the bars too hard
"In 1987, my wife, Mary, and I lived in a small two-bedroom flat in North London. The other room was my music room," Smith told Blender magazine. "Just about the only discipline I had in my life was self-imposed. I set myself a regimen of writing 15 days a month; otherwise I'd have just got up in mid-afternoon and watched TV until the pubs opened, then gone out drinking. I knew as soon as I'd written it that it was a good pop song."
2. "Just Like Heaven" is a lot like another classic but little-known UK rock song
"Although I didn't realize it at the time, the structure is very similar to 'Another Girl, Another Planet,' by The Only Ones, which I can still vividly remember hearing on the radio late at night in the mid-'70s," Smith admitted to Blender. "The main difference is that as the song progressed, I introduced some different chord changes, which give it that slightly melancholic feeling."
3. The song is about making out so hard that you pass out
"The song is about hyperventilating - kissing and fainting to the floor," Smith explained to Blender. "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."
4. Robert Smith considers "Just Like Heaven" as the best song he's ever written (and it's not even close)
"It’s one of a handful that when you’re playing it in front of people [that I think that]. When I sing, “It’s just like a dream,” and Roger starts doing the piano bit, I look at people and everyone suddenly looks over at the piano and I look at the crowd and it’s one of those really lovely moments," Smith told Rolling Stone last year. "When I wrote it, I thought, 'That’s it. I’ll never write something as good as this again.' I remember saying to the others in the studio, 'That’s it. We might as well pack up.' Thankfully, we didn’t."
5. "Just Like Heaven" was the Cure's first hit in America
While Robert Smith and company had been underground cult heroes on this side of the pond for years, "Just Like Heaven" would be the song that helped them crack the American mainstream. With the music video enjoying plenty of play on MTV, the song peaked at #40 for the week of January 9, 1988. The #1 song in America that week: Whitney Houston's "So Emotional."
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