Five best covers of The Cure classic ‘Just Like Heaven’
The Cure formed in the late 1970s with a classic punk sound identified by their choppy guitar riffs and raw, energetic Jimi Hendrix covers. Following the band’s modest debut endeavours in 1979’s Three Imaginary Boys, frontman Robert Smith helmed a darker, more reflective route for his vocals, and the music became increasingly refined and gloomy.
Joining the stream of post-punk outfits emerging from the 1970s, The Cure looked to squat in the gothic corner alongside Bauhaus and Siouxsie and The Banshees. While Smith was caught up in the zeitgeist of the punk movement earlier in the ’70s, bands like Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned never pushed his buttons musically.
“I preferred groups like the Buzzcocks, who were part of that movement. I mean, the only real hardcore punk band that I liked was the Banshees and the Stranglers, possibly, even though they were really old then,” Smith told NME in 2014, discussing his early tastes.
The first turning point for The Cure came in 1979 when Smith supported Siouxsie and the Banshees on tour. “It was so different to what we were doing with The Cure. Before that, I’d wanted us to be like the Buzzcocks or Elvis Costello, the punk Beatles. Being a Banshee really changed my attitude to what I was doing.”
This early gothic persuasion reached its pinnacle in 1982 with Pornography, at a time when the depressing content of The Cure’s music reflected the frayed and burned-out atmosphere within the band. After a short hiatus, The Cure began their third era in the mid-1980s, which retained the gothic, post-punk aura, but with a radio-friendly zeal.
This new era reached its height in 1989’s Disintegration, which saw The Cure morph into a stadium-filling global sensation almost overnight. Disintegration’s winning formula was hinted at in its eclectic predecessor, 1987’s double album, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.
The 1987 classic was the first Cure album to break into the American top 40, buoyed by its most successful single, ‘Just Like Heaven’. The single’s almost unironically danceable rhythm and cascading guitar riffs give Smith’s yearning and moody lyrical story a highly commercial conduit and foreshadow the global stardom yet to come.
Today, we celebrate this classic Cure single by picking out its five greatest covers.
Five best covers of The Cure classic ‘Just Like Heaven’
Dinosaur Jr. – 1989
Just two years after The Cure’s original, Massachusetts-based group Dinosaur Jr. released their heavier noise-rock rendition. The original is given new life with heavy, overdriven guitar, a higher tempo and J. Masicis’ vocals, which range from nonchalance to intense exclamation.
The cover was released on the Dinosaur’s third studio album, Bug, which became something of an international breakthrough. Thanks to its nod to the British post-punk titans, Bug reached number one on the UK independent chart, remaining on the chart for 12 weeks.
Katie Melua – 2005
Georgian-British singer-songwriter Katie Melua made her recording debut in 2003, aged just 19 and within three years, she was the UK’s best-selling female artist. Her sound flits between various genres, including folk, jazz and blues, but is held constant by her powerful vocals.
Melua’s stunning rendition of The Cure’s 1987 hit was released on her acclaimed sophomore album, Piece by Piece, initially recorded for the 2005 Mark Waters rom-com Just Like Heaven, which starred Reese Witherspoon.
The Watson Twins – 2008
Alt-country duo The Watson Twins were raised in Louisville, Kentucky. During their student years at Los Angeles’ University of Eastville, they brought the sound of the mid-west to the West Coast, initially as part of a band called Slydell.
Over the past two decades, the sisters have achieved moderate success as a pair and in various collaborations, most notably with Jenny Lewis and her band, Nice As Fuck. One of their proudest moments was their rendition of ‘Just Like Heaven’, recorded for the True Blood soundtrack.
Beatsteaks – 2002
German punk/metal group Beatsteaks rose to prominence in 1996 after winning a local music competition at the SO36 club and subsequently opened for the Sex Pistols at a reunion concert in Berlin.
In 2002, their third studio album, Living Targets, was accompanied by the Die Wohnzimmer EP, which comprised covers of the likes of Steve Miller, Cheap Trick, Nine Inch Nails, and Sonny Curtis. One of the seven covers was a relatively unadulterated cover of ‘Just Like Heaven’.
Tristen – 2021
While this mononymous Nashville-based singer-songwriter has yet to break through as an international chart-scaling sensation, her prolific material of the past two decades has never ceased to bring a unique, endearing edge to a pop sound.
In 2019, Tristen released a popular cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘A Case of You’. At the beginning of 2021, she showed her love for The Cure in a similarly demure cover of ‘Just Like Heaven’. Her tranquil vocals are set against a subtly upbeat acoustic rhythm and synth layers.
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