Happy 30th: The Cure, The Head on the Door

30 years ago today, The Cure released the album that provided the band with their first entry into the upper half of Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart as well as their inaugural entry onto the Billboard Hot 100.

Some would say that The Head on the Door is the first properly commercial album in The Cure’s back catalog, but it’s certainly not 100% radio-friendly pop stuff. That said, there’s no question that songs like “In Between Days” and “Close to Me” certainly find Robert Smith and company delivering some of the most upbeat material of their career, which would explain why the former track ended up making it onto the Billboard Hot 100. Mind you, they only just barely managed it – the highest height it hit was #99 – but they managed it, dammit, and that’s what counts.

Besides, their success on the albums chart was decidedly stronger, hitting #59 – a full 121 places higher than its predecessor, The Top – and taking The Cure to the next rung on the ladder of success.

"The Head On The Door pushed us into the next level of public consciousness, and it was nice to step away from that and not have to worry about following it up right away,” said Smith, in a 1987 interview with Eastcoast Rocket. “It gave us an enormous amount of time to think about the next record, and it made us very itchy to get back into the studio and do something.”