On April 10th, 1989, The Cure released their single “Lullaby” from their much beloved 1989 album Disintegration.
“Lullaby” became The Cure’s highest-charting hit in the UK reached number five on the Singles Chart, remaining their only single to reach the top five in the United Kingdom.
Watch the video below:
The Tim Burton-esque music video for “Lullaby”—directed by Tim Pope and edited by Peter Goddard—was filmed at a sound stage in London and featured frontman Robert Smith laying in bed, with visions of the rest of The Cure performing as cobwebbed covered tin soldiers.
In allusion to his past drug use, Smith plays both himself, and his cannibalistic doppelganger the “spiderman”, where in the end Smith seems to end up being devoured whole by what appears to be a giant spider.
“That song was particularly lurid and vivid,” says Pope of Lullaby, “and it’s got one of my favorite lines: ‘And I feel like I’m being eaten/By a thousand million shivering furry holes.’ My god, where can you go wrong with a line like that?”
On the visual inspiration for the video, Pope continues:
“I had grown up with the films of Roman Polanski — you know, films like Repulsion and The Tenant [and they] were a great influence on me.” he said. “They all tend to be kind of dark and obsessive. And that was something that went very well with the Cure’s music and Robert’s lyrics.”
The video ended up winning British Video of the Year at the 1990 Brit Awards.
Watch Tim Pope’s making of “Lullaby” below, or via TimPope.com.
Throughout the various editions of the single’s release are featured the b-sides “Babble”, and “Out of Mind”, along with a live version of “Homesick”.
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