Happy Anniversary: The Cure, THE HEAD ON THE DOOR

34 years ago today, The Cure released their sixth studio album, an LP which provided the band with their first single to land on the Billboard Hot 100 (if only just barely).

Co-produced by Robert Smith and David M. Allen, THE HEAD ON THE DOOR threw some Cure fans for a loop because of how many unabashed pop songs it included, but it’s no coincidence that it’s also the album that officially helped introduce the band to mainstream audiences while still maintaining enough of their core sound to keep most – if admittedly not all – of their older fans pleased.

In case you’re wondering, the song that made its way onto the Hot 100 was “In Between Days,” and if you’re also curious about the parenthetical caveat in the opening paragraph, well, the song debuted at #99 and never got any higher. Still, for a band as unabashedly “alternative” in the eyes of most Americans as The Cure were, it was a major accomplishment.

Elsewhere in the world, the album also proved to be a success, thanks to both “In Between Days” and “Close to Me,” and in addition to hitting #59 on the Billboard 200 and #7 on the UK Albums chart, THE HEAD ON THE DOOR also climbed to #6 in Australia and #3 on the Dutch Albums chart. As such, when The Cure released their best-of album, STANDING ON A BEACH, later in 1985, it proved to be a smash in the countries that were finally starting to pay attention to the band: it eventually went double-platinum in America and triple-platinum in Australia.