As most of you all know by now, over at FemaleFirst HQ we love to honour a good song every so often, and after hearing The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry on the radio this afternoon, I thought it was about time that we gave them some recognition.

The History Bit

Boys Don’t Cry - The Cure

Boys Don’t Cry - The Cure

Boys Don't Cry was the second single to be released by The Cure, and started invading out ears way back in June 1979.

The lyrics were written by Michael Dempsey, Robert Smith, and Lol Tolhurst and tell the story of a man trying to win back the love of a girl he has lost and tries to disguise his true emotional state by "laughing, hiding the tears in [his] eyes, 'cause boys don't cry". Aww.

Although it didn’t do overly well in the music charts, and the 1986 re-release fared even worse, it has still become something of a musical hero to us, despite probably not meaning much these days, as we love a boy who shows his emotions!

Is It In That Film?

 

Although you might be fooled by Nathan Larson’s super sexy voice, the song from the 1999 film, Boys Don’t Cry was actually a cover version; although Hilary Swank wasn’t faking anything when she took home the Academy Award for Best Actress.

The plot of that film is pretty different from the story which is told by the lyrics though, as it is based on the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender young man who was raped and murdered by his male friends, after they found out he was physically female.

Not content with just one stint in the movies, the song even gets an outing in The Wedding Singer, Starter for Ten and the 2008 film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - featuring my future husband (finger‘s crossed) Michael Cera.

But wasn’t it sung by someone else?

You will probably know that the song has had a few different vocalists batting out the vocals as the likes of Reel Big Fish and The Smashing Pumpkins like to have a go at slotting it into their live sets.

A favourite with the rock gods too, Hell Is for Heroes recorded the song as a b-side for their single Retreat, and Lostprophets did the same for their single Last Summer whilst Razorlight chose to perform the song at The Cure's MTV Icon ceremony in 2004.

But the most joyous moment for me, is the fact that my celeb best mates, the California metal quintet Atreyu mention the song with the line "...and Robert Smith lied, boys do cry..." in their song The Crimson from their 2004 album The Curse.

FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison

 

 

 

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