About The Song
“Just Like Heaven” is a song by British alternative rock band the Cure. The group wrote most of the song during recording sessions in southern France in 1987. The lyrics were written by their frontman Robert Smith, who drew inspiration from a past trip to the sea shore with his future wife. Smith’s memories of the trip formed the basis for the song’s accompanying music video. Before Smith had completed the lyrics, an instrumental version of the song was used as the theme for the French television show Les Enfants du Rock.
“Just Like Heaven” was the third single released from their 1987 album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. The song became the Cure’s first American hit and reached number 40 on the Billboard charts in 1988. It has been praised by critics and covered by artists such as Dinosaur Jr. and Katie Melua. Smith has said he considers “Just Like Heaven” to be one of the band’s strongest songs.
“Just Like Heaven” is written in the key of A major and consists of an A–E–Bm–D chord progression which repeats throughout the song, except during the chorus when the band plays an F♯m–G–D progression. The song’s central hook is formed from a descending guitar riff which appears between song verses and in parts of the bridge and the last verse. This guitar line contrasts with the “fuzzier mix” of the rhythm guitars.
According to Smith, “The song is about hyperventilating—kissing and fainting to the floor.” The lyrics were inspired by a trip with his then-girlfriend (and later wife) Mary Poole to Beachy Head in southern England. Smith said the opening line of the song (“Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick”) refers to his childhood memories of mastering magic tricks, but added “on another [level], it’s about a seduction trick, from much later in my life”.
Video
Lyrics
Show me, show me, show me, how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream, she said
The one that makes me laugh, she said
Threw her arms around my neck
Show me how you do it, and I promise you
I promise that I’ll run away with you
I’ll run away with you
Spinning on that dizzy edge
I kissed her face and kissed her head
Dreamed of all the different ways
I had to make her glow
Why are you so far away?, she said
Why won’t you ever know that I’m in love with you?
That I’m in love with you?
You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You’re just like a dream
Just like a dream
Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone
Alone
Alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved
And drowned her deep inside of me
You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Just like heaven