Songfacts®:

• A song called "The Kiss" sure sounds romantic, but this is The Cure we're talking about, so something more sinister is at play. This kiss Robert Smith sings about comes from a vampire; it's a bite on the neck so he can feed on the blood of his victim. Despite the title, it's anything but a love song.
• This song played up The Cure's image of "Rock Vampires," with a dark sound and macabre lyrics.
• This is the first song on the Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me album, and it was the opener on their subsequent tour (the "Kissing" tour). With a long intro filled with staccato synths and distorted guitar, it allowed the band to start the show with a visual presentation. The stage was surrounded by white curtains, and as the band played, scenes from a short movie they made called Eyemou were projected onto them. When Smith started singing, the curtains dropped, revealing the band as he belted out the opening line: "Kiss me kiss me kiss me."
• This track runs 6:15 with an exceptionally long intro: Robert Smith doesn't start singing until 3:50.