The 1986 mix of “Boys Don’t Cry” finally reaches digital
Forty years after Robert Smith re-sang the vocal, the elusive “New Voice – New Mix” gets a fresh remaster and its first official digital release.
The Cure opened their 2026 release calendar by rescuing a familiar recording with an unexpectedly complicated history. “Boys Don’t Cry (86 Mix)” arrived on streaming services on 22 January, newly remastered and officially available in digital form for the first time.
Robert Smith returned to the song in 1986, re-singing its lead vocal and remixing the recording as part of the campaign around Standing on a Beach. The version appeared on seven- and twelve-inch vinyl and accompanied the new promotional video, yet it was not placed on the compilation itself. It also stayed off later greatest-hits sets, leaving the alternate vocal oddly stranded outside the band’s main digital catalogue.
A small release with real archival value
The differences are not a wholesale rewrite. The arrangement remains the bright, economical rush listeners know, while the later vocal brings a little more weight and assurance to the melody. That subtlety is precisely why the release matters: it restores a missing branch of one of the band’s most recognisable songs without pretending it is a newly discovered masterpiece.
The 2026 remaster is available to stream, on CD and on vinyl. For collectors it closes a long-standing gap; for everyone else it offers an unusually clear comparison between Smith as a young singer and the more confident voice he had developed by the middle of the following decade.
Sources and further reading: The Cure: official announcement