The Cure’s ‘The Head on the Door’ turns 41 on 30 August
Fiction Records released The Cure’s sixth album, “The Head on the Door,” on 30 August 1985. It turns 41 this year.
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The Cure released their sixth studio album, “The Head on the Door,” on 30 August 1985 through Fiction Records. The album turns 41 this year. It followed 1984’s “The Top” and arrived with a lineup that added drummer Boris Williams and brought back bassist Simon Gallup and guitarist Porl Thompson.
The band recorded “The Head on the Door” in 1985 at Angel Recording Studios in London. Robert Smith and David M. Allen produced the album, with Howard Gray producing “Kyoto Song,” “Push” and “A Night Like This,” and Frank Barretta engineering. The ten-track record runs “In Between Days,” “Kyoto Song,” “The Blood,” “Six Different Ways,” “Push,” “The Baby Screams,” “Close to Me,” “A Night Like This,” “Screw” and “Sinking.” It was issued on vinyl LP and CD, led by the single “In Between Days,” which reached number 15 on the UK Singles Chart, and followed by second single “Close to Me.” “The Head on the Door” reached number seven on the UK Albums Chart and number 59 in the US, and is certified gold in the US, UK and France. It streams on Spotify.
About The Cure
The Cure formed in Crawley, England, in 1976, when school friends Robert Smith and Lol Tolhurst played together in a band that became Malice, then Easy Cure. Easy Cure signed briefly to the German label Ariola-Hansa in 1977, but the deal collapsed in 1978 after the label rejected the song “Killing an Arab” and pushed for cover versions instead. Guitarist Porl Thompson was dropped from the lineup in April 1978, and Smith renamed the remaining trio the Cure. Later that year, Polydor scout Chris Parry signed the band to his newly formed Fiction label. The Cure released the single “Killing an Arab” in December 1978 and its debut album, “Three Imaginary Boys,” in May 1979.
Bassist Simon Gallup joined for “Seventeen Seconds” (1980), an album that helped shape the emerging gothic rock sound, followed by “Faith” (1981) and “Pornography” (1982). Gallup left after the “Pornography” tour, and Smith put the Cure on hold to join Siouxsie and the Banshees as guitarist. Tolhurst switched from drums to keyboards, and the pair released the singles “Let’s Go to Bed” (1982), “The Walk” and “The Love Cats” (1983), later compiled on “Japanese Whispers.” For 1984’s “The Top,” Smith played most of the instruments himself, drummer Andy Anderson and early Malice member Porl Thompson filled out the sessions, and Thompson officially rejoined the band. During the following tour, Boris Williams, previously the touring drummer for Thompson Twins, became the Cure’s official drummer, and Gallup rejoined after reconciling with Smith. This lineup of Smith, Tolhurst, Gallup, Williams and Thompson recorded “The Head on the Door” in 1985, and the album’s success carried into the “Standing on a Beach” singles compilation the following year.
The Cure went on to release “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me” (1987), “Disintegration” (1989) and “Wish” (1992), and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. The band’s most recent studio album, “Songs of a Lost World,” arrived in November 2024 after a 16-year gap, followed by the remix collection “Mixes of a Lost World” in June 2025. The Cure returned to Rockfield Studios in March 2025 to record 13 songs for a follow-up album, placing “The Head on the Door” anniversary within an active chapter of the band’s ongoing work.
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