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The Cure's 'Boys Don't Cry' Becomes a Streaming Hit
The 1979 post-punk classic finds new life on TikTok and Spotify
Jan. 28, 2026 at 2:07pm
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The Cure's early hit "Boys Don't Cry" has been steadily gaining streaming momentum over the past few months, thanks to a surge of popularity on TikTok. The song, which failed to chart upon its original release, has now surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify and is seeing a major uptick in weekly on-demand streams, tripling from under 1 million to over 3.1 million in just two months. This newfound streaming success comes as The Cure prepares to reissue the song's 1986 re-recording on vinyl for its 40th anniversary.
Why it matters
The resurgence of "Boys Don't Cry" highlights the power of TikTok and streaming platforms to revive overlooked songs from the past. The track's preternatural catchiness and emotional lyrics have resonated with a new generation of listeners, potentially leading to the song charting for the first time in the U.K. and possibly even on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. This could open up new opportunities for The Cure's catalog and serve as a model for other classic alt-rock songs to find unexpected second lives in the 2020s.
The details
Over the last three months, "Boys Don't Cry" has caught fire on TikTok, with over 107,000 videos using the song and several amassing over 1 million likes. This TikTok popularity has translated to a major increase in streaming, with the song's weekly on-demand streams more than tripling from under 1 million to over 3.1 million in the two months leading up to January 23rd. The Cure's 1979 original version of the song has also recently entered the U.K. Official Charts for the first time, while the band prepares to reissue the 1986 re-recording on vinyl for its 40th anniversary.
- In mid-October, the song was still garnering under 1 million weekly official on-demand streams.
- Two months later, for the tracking week ending Jan. 23, the song's weekly streams had more than tripled to over 3.1 million.
- The Cure's 1979 original version of "Boys Don't Cry" recently entered the U.K. Official Charts for the first time.
- The band is preparing to reissue the 1986 re-recording of "Boys Don't Cry" on vinyl for its 40th anniversary.
The players
The Cure
An English rock band that was one of the founders of the gothic rock genre. They have found moderate pop crossover success over their career, with 14 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the No. 2 hit "Love Song" in 1989.
What they’re saying
“It's been a good past year for emotional alt-rock songs that never found a pop audience in their first lives finding a second life with 2020s audiences.”
— Andrew Unterberger
What’s next
The Cure's 1979 original version of "Boys Don't Cry" will be watched to see if it can match the peak of the 1986 re-recording on the U.K. Official Charts, or potentially even debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. for the first time.
The takeaway
The resurgence of The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" on streaming platforms, driven by its popularity on TikTok, demonstrates the power of social media and digital music consumption to revive overlooked songs from the past and introduce them to new generations of listeners. This could pave the way for other classic alt-rock tracks to find unexpected second lives in the 2020s.
