The Cure | Boys Don’t Cry

On February 5th, 1980 The Cure released their compilation album Boys Don’t Cry. The album featured the lineup of Robert Smith on vocals and guitar, with Michael Dempsey on bass, and Lol Tolhurst on drums.

Boys Don’t Cry,  The Cure’s American debut release, is pretty much a repurposed version of the band’s debut LP Three Imaginary Boys except it includes the first three singles “Killing an Arab”, “Boys Don’t Cry”, and “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” and omits songs like “So What”, “Object”, and “Meathook.”

Additionally, on most CD versions of the album, “Object” was replaced by “So What”, plus the scream at the end of “Subway Song” was shortened, and “World War” was removed.

The original version of “Boys Don’t Cry” featured on the album initially had no music video, however, the song was re-recorded in 1986 for the Standing On A Beach video compilation with new vocals and the accompanying Tim Pope directed footage of 3 young boys miming playing their instruments, with the silhouettes of Dempsey, Tolhurst, and Smith projected behind them.

The videos for “Killing An Arab”, and Jumping Someone Else’s Train, also directed by Pope, were created for the 1986 video compilation as well.

The song “10:15 Saturday Night”, originally the b-side to band’s debut single “Killing An Arab”, has the honor of being the band’s first music video. The Piers Bedford directed promotional footage was the only music video released at the time of the compilation’s debut.

Tracklisting:

Side A

1. “Boys Don’t Cry” 2:37
2. “Plastic Passion” 2:15
3. “10:15 Saturday Night” 3:40
4. “Accuracy” 2:16
5. “Object” 3:03
6. “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” 2:58
7. “Subway Song” 1:54

Side B

1. “Killing an Arab” 2:22
2. “Fire in Cairo” 3:21
3. “Another Day” 3:43
4. “Grinding Halt” 2:49
5. “World War” 2:36
6. “Three Imaginary Boys”