On this very day in 1987, The Cure finally broke through to America with the release of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. After releasing the album on May 26, 1987, the band would find themselves on the US charts in a way they never had before.
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The album was the band’s seventh studio record, and it was quite a thing to behold back in the 80s. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me featured all of the elements of the British alternative rock band that their national fans had grown to love.
The two hit singles to come out of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me included “Why Can’t I Be You?” and the now-signature song “Just Like Heaven”. The whole of the album peaked at no. 35 on the Billboard 200 and no. 6 on the UK Albums chart. It would be The Cure’s first album to reach the Top 40 in the US. “Why Can’t I Be You” peaked at no. 54 on the US Hot 100, and “Just Like Heaven” made it even further to no. 40.
How the Cure Found Mainstream Success Across the Pond in America With ‘Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me’
According to Robert Smith, the inspiration for the album came from looking back at The Cure’s past work. Sometimes, it’s wise to look back instead of forward.
“I reimmersed myself in certain moods and certain styles that we’d been involved with, that I didn’t think I’d carried through as far as I could,” said Smith the same year Kiss Me came out. “I sort of made mental notes of those, and we used some of them on the new record. So in some way, the new record is almost a resume of everything we’ve done over the years. Half of it’s looking forward, and half of it’s trying to sum up what the group’s done in the past.”
Part of what made The Cure so appealing to American audiences likely came down to the fact that Kiss Me had so many different things that different listeners could enjoy. There are psychedelic elements, some funk-rock movements, and even some R&B-leaning pop tunes like “Why Can’t I Be You”. And, naturally, “Just Like Heaven” was one of the finest new wave tunes to come out in the late 1980s.
The Cure conquered America with Kiss Me, and they became even more globally appealing with their darker follow-up record, Disintegration.
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