“The Caterpillar” by The Cure

The only single lifted from The Top, the Cure's fifth studio album, "The Caterpillar" crawled out in March 1984 and climbed to 14 in the UK, and it's a gloriously strange little pop song. Robert Smith wrote it with Lol Tolhurst and handles nearly everything himself: bass, guitar and a scraping violin, plus the lead vocal, with Tolhurst on keyboards and Andy Anderson rattling the drums.

Smith co-produced with Chris Parry and David M. Allen, and the whole thing flutters and skitters like its namesake. AllMusic's Ned Raggett later heard the Cure letting themselves go pop without fretting over what they were supposed to sound like. Tim Pope shot the video in the Great Conservatory at Syon Park in London, with Phil Thornalley and Porl Thompson on screen, though neither plays on the track.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.