Over the years, I’ve been subject to a lot of songs from my parents.

As the heads of the household, my mom and dad usually controlled what was being played in the house.  And thus, many of the songs on my parents’s ITunes accounts were played hundreds of times.  Because I heard some of these songs almost every day, it felt like thousands.  With some songs, they became so overplayed that I now have no urge to ever listen to them again.  This includes, but is not limited to, “Summer Wind” by Frank Sinatra, “Photograph” by Ringo Starr, several songs from the Hamilton soundtrack (the summer after the song got big, I had to hear “What’s your name man?” thousands of times when I was home), and especially the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack.  Now, they did have good taste in music, as exemplified by “Smells Like Teen Spirit” being one of the first songs I ever heard, and their near-constant play of “Sex And Candy” by Marcy Playground.  But sometimes, I wouldn’t be able to take that one extra play of “Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest.  It says as much that when I finally joined my dad as a secret 70s R&B fan, I moved on from his selections of Al Green, the Spinners, and Gladys Knight and the Pips to instead focus on The Stylistics, Blue Magic, and the Isley Brothers.

The reason I am mentioning this is because this next song is one of those songs my mom and dad played at least 500,000 times during my upbringing.  I heard the song all the time as a teenager in high school.  Then I heard the song all the time when I was home from college.  This song just always seemed to be played.  It got played so much, in fact, that when narrowing down the list, I initially wasn’t planning on having this song in the top ten, instead settling for it as an honorable mention.  But then I took another look at the song, from an objective standpoint, and realized that when actually looking at this song with fresh eyes, I in fact do love this song.  Maybe I just can’t resist a goth kid letting in the sunshine.

“Friday I’m In Love” – The Cure

Pop
#18 peak (August 8, 1992)
#71 year-end, 20 weeks on chart

Modern Rock
#1 peak (June 13 – July 4^th, 1992)
#3 year-end, 14 weeks on chart

Mainstream Rock
#21 peak (July 11, 1992), 10 weeks on chart

UK
#5 peak (June 6, 1992)
#26 year-end, 7 weeks on chart

I really don’t know what to say about “Friday I’m In Love.”  It’s in large part because of how many times I’ve heard the song in my life, as I just stated.  Reviewing this song is going to be like reviewing my own hands.  But just like how my skin makes me feel warmer than I would be with just muscle and bones, “Friday I’m In Love” makes my day a little bit happier whenever I hear it.

To start off with the obvious, it comes across as quite a shock that “Friday I’m In Love,” a song by a band known for doom and gloom, became the biggest hit of said band’s career.  Then again, maybe it wasn’t.  The Cure may be best known for being the granddaddy of all goth rock bands, but then you remember that their breakthrough hit in America, the song that became their first song to reach the Top 40 in the US, is “Just Like Heaven,” an amazingly beautiful and awestruck love song that stands as my favorite song by the group.  And while their 1989 magnum opus Disintegrationfeatures the haunting and disturbing “Lullaby” and the dark goth funk of “Fascination Street,” its big hit was “Lovesong,” a song so saccharine and sweet in its lyrical composition that it achieved second life two decades later when Adele covered the song on her all-world conquering 21.  Point being, it was all leading up to this.  A song that resembled true happiness in every conceivable way.

And what makes it even more surprising that “Friday I’m In Love” is such a great song is that when you really look into it, this song is absolute disposable garbage.  The chorus, which is permanently impaled in my brain cells the same way the alphabet and lyrics to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” are, is so cheesy.  You don’t care about any of the days in the week besides Friday?  Does that mean you just sleep through the entire day and don’t go to work except for Friday?  Or you just act as a hermit and don’t leave your apartment except for that one single day where you go to work, go to the store, and buy your stupid goth clothes and makeup?  Then we have to get into the actual “love song” part of the song, in the bridge.  The defining element of this woman that Robert Smith is madly in love with?  She looks absolutely stunning… eating in the middle of the night.  Wow.  I guess if that’s what you’re into, Rob.  And finally, the song ends with guitar sound effects from Porl Thompson that legitimately sound like cartoonish representations of the song’s couple having sex.  I mean, what else is that “boing” sound effect followed by ticklish effects ending with a big, fat kiss supposed to represent?

So yes, this song is very stupid.  But then again, I believe that’s the point.  “Friday I’m In Love” is not a true love song.  It’s a song that is making fun of love songs.  The Cure weren’t trying and failing to be someone else like their countrymates Def Leppard were in my pick for the worst song of the year.  They were writing a commentary on how so many songs are about basic subject matter with vague meaning so that it appeals to as many people as possible, to the point that the song is for no one.  Furthermore, when I write these best lists, I’m not looking for the objective best song.  I’m looking for the song I would most want to hear a second time, or in the case of the worst lists, the song I would least want to hear a second time.  It’s going to lead to some controversial decisions down the road, that’s for sure.  And that is why “Friday I’m In Love” is one of the ten best rock songs of the year.  It may be hollow at its core, but the song is so relentlessly joyful that I can’t help but love it.

Just listen to the song’s music.  When the song’s D#-G#-D#-A#-Cm-G#-D#-A# intro that sets the tone for the entire song (although the song switches up chords for the chorus and bridge, “Friday I’m In Love” never uses different chords than the four I just listed), it is the musical equivalent of a man or woman running out and about with his or her arms outstretched in a state of pure bliss.  And then Thompson plays his lead guitar riff and the song just explodes into even more happiness.  Even the handclaps in the chorus come across as necessary for the song’s theme of elation.  Sure, they’re ridiculously cheesy, but who cares?  Again, this song is a satire.  It deserved handclaps.  And finally, Robert Smith’s impassioned vocals completely sell the song.  It’s a song where he found happiness!

Some songs, like “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Hey Jude,” or “Like A Rolling Stone,” are great songs because they’re perfect in every possible way.  But some songs are great songs because they just completely sell the mood and tone they are going for, regardless of any lyrical or musical issues that may be taking place.  “Friday I’m In Love” is a perfect example of this.  It may be dumb, and it may be childish, but quite frankly who can’t resist this type of stupid fun? 

UP NEXT: Let’s stay on the other side of the pond with a Manchester classic at #8.

SOURCES

Chords taken from Ultimate Guitar: https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/the-cure/friday-im-in-love-chords-101457.

IMAGE SOURCES

Single cover from Discogs

Photo of band from Spotify