The Cure: Just Like Heaven

A little while ago we featured another song by The Cure, “Lovesong,” in the Bit o’ Covers category (click here to check it out)… well, I guess we dug it so much that we’re doing another Cure tune today, their huge hit, “Just Like Heaven.”

I remember hearing the song for the first time… I had picked up their Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me record and was pretty amazed to hear how upbeat the record was. When “Just Like Heaven” came on, even my oldest brother had to sit down and take a listen. He had introduced me to The Cure… he had this “THIS is The Cure?” look on his face, but it slowly melted away as the song progressed. By the end, he looked at me and said, “Play that one again!” I didn’t, of course, which led to a boxing match between us. My mom then confiscated the record and told us that unless we apologized for REAL, we wouldn’t get the record back.

My mom still has that record tucked away somewhere.

Anyhow, I was able to enjoy “Just Like Heaven,” despite not having the record anymore, because once the song hit radio, it exploded and was just about everywhere you can imagine, even in my colon. “Just Like Heaven” hit the Top 40 and has since become on of The Cure’s most popular songs. VH-1 puts the song at #22 on their 100 Greatest Songs of the 80’s list, and Rolling Stone magazine places the song at #483 in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Personally, I place it at the #1 spot for my 500 Greatest Songs That Caused My Brothers and I to Fight list. Yes, my brothers and I disagreed a LOT on music.

To put it simply: I am cool, they are not.

Anyhow, “Just Like Heaven” was inspired by singer Robert Smith’s wife, Mary Poole, who was the inspiration to their other hit, “Lovesong.” I guess Smith was really proud of “Just Like Heaven,” because in an interview he gave to Blender.com, he calls it “the best pop song the Cure have ever done: All the sounds meshed, it was one take and it was perfect.”

Regarding the origins of the song, Smith explains that “In 1987, my wife, Mary, and I lived in a small two-bedroom flat in North London. The other room was my music room. 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.”

He did a bang-up job writing, though, and by the time he finished the song, he was a happy camper. “I knew as soon as I’d written it that it was a good pop song,” Smith says in the Blender.com interview. “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. The main difference is that as the song progressed, I introduced some different chord changes, which give it that slightly melancholic feeling.”

Here’s a live performance of “Just Like Heaven.” Man, I REALLY gotta get me a can of Aqua Net.

“Just Like Heaven” is a classic, there’s no two-ways about it. It has stood the test of time, and has been covered by numerous other artists. The song even made it into space… on July 16, 2006, the crew to the Space Shuttle Discovery woke up to “Just Like Heaven,” as chosen by astronaut Piers Sellers’ family. According to Foxnews.com, the song reminded him of “the wild, happy, drinking-beer years of my youth.”

Sit back and enjoy the cover versions posted below in the Dig-It section. I’m sure you’ll find one that fits your fancy, as they are all most enjoyable. I love what Ben Folds says about the song: “It sounded so new and different at the time it came out, and usually things that seem so new when you first hear them die a horrible death. But everything about it — the songwriting, the music — is state of the art. It’s as good as it gets. Anytime I hear it on the radio or a mix tape, I jump around like a freak.”

I’m gonna go take a listen and look like a freak. So should you. Because that’s what Roy Hobbs would tell you to do. And I’m Roy Hobbs.

the cure - just like heaven

Powered by ScribeFire.