On April 21, 1992 - frontman Robert Smith's birthday! - The Cure released their ninth studio album, an LP which provided the band with one of the biggest American hits of their career, not to mention one of the cheeriest tunes ever penned by Smith.
READ MORE: Just Like Heaven: The Cure's Best Love Songs
To give credit where credit is due, Smith wasn’t the only credited writer on “Friday I’m in Love.” Indeed, there are four other names listed: bassist/guitarist Perry Bamonte, drummer Boris Williams, bassist Simon Gallup, and guitarist Porl Thompson, the other members of The Cure during the recording of Wish.
That said, it was Smith who got antsy during the writing process, having convinced himself that he’d unwittingly swiped the chord progression of the song from elsewhere. To be fair, it’s not as though he’d ever really written a song quite so unabashedly catchy and jangly before, but after playing it to everyone he could think of, Smith finally decided that he actually did come up with the melody himself.
WATCH: CHVRCHES and Robert Smith Cover The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" at NME Awards
Co-produced by Smith and David Allen, “Friday I’m in Love” originally started out slower, but it’s clear that upping the speed (as Smith accidentally did during recording) worked well in the long run: the song ended up making its way to No. 6 in the U.K. and became The Cure’s only platinum-selling single to date. In addition, the track also made it to No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, which – as noted earlier – makes it the band’s second highest-charting single in America after “Lovesong,” which hit No. 2.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering what The Cure’s third highest-charting single was, we might as well tell you, since it’s also from the Wish album: it’s “High,” which peaked at No. 42.
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