Why Can't I Be You?

"Why Can't I Be You?"
Single by The Cure
from the album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Released	April 6, 1987
Format	7" 12"
Genre	New wave pop[1] R&B[2]
Length	3:14
Label	Fiction
Writer(s)	Boris Williams Simon Gallup Robert Smith Porl Thompson Lol Tolhurst
Producer(s)	Robert Smith Dave Allen
The Cure singles chronology
"Boys Don't Cry (New Voice)" (1986) "Why Can't I Be You?" (1987) "Catch" (1987)

"Why Can't I Be You?" is a song by the English rock band The Cure, released as a single from their 1987 album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

History

"Why Can't I Be You?" was the first single released from the album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me—the band's seventh LP. In 1987, it peaked at number 21 on UK Singles Chart.^[3] In the United States that same year, the song reached number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100, while a remix of the track charted at numbers eight and 27 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales and the Dance Music/Club Play Singles charts, respectively.^[4]

The video for "Why Can't I Be You?" was filmed in early 1987, in between rehearsals for The Cure's first South American tour. It was directed by Tim Pope, a past video collaborator of the group's. Filmed in a studio in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland owned by actress Mary Tyler Moore, the video featured the band members performing what biographer Jeff Apter referred to as "some of the most poorly choreographed dancing ever seen on MTV". All five band members wore costumes: Robert Smith dressed as a bear and as a woman, Simon Gallup was costume as both a crow and a Morris dancer, Porl Thompson was a Scotsman as well as cross-dressed, Boris Williams was a schoolgirl and Lol Tolhurst wore blackface and then a bumblebee costume. Pope referred to the clip as "the video I've always wanted to make".^[5]

Reception

In the NME's review of the single, writer Donald McRae singled out Smith's voice as the sole element of the song that "doesn't shout 'TEEN FUN'". Nonetheless, he praised the band, and concluded, "Shameless and cheap enough to steal Wham's 'Young Guns' riff, this ditty will soon be another Top of the Pops cracker".^[6]

Stewart Mason of Allmusic described the song as having "the remarkable ability to be simultaneously incredibly catchy and frankly rather annoying", noting it as an " antic, herky-jerky" successor to previous singles such as "Let's Go to Bed" and "The Lovecats".^[1] Stephen Thomas Erlewine, also of Allmusic, called it "deceptively bouncy" and noted it as a high point of the album and helps make it "one of the group's very best".^[7]

Track listing

7"

Fiction / Fics 25 (UK)

1. "Why Can't I Be You?" (3:12)
2. "A Japanese Dream" (3:27)

7"

Polydor / 888 454-7 (FR)

1. "Why Can't I Be You?" (3:12)
2. "A Japanese Dream" (3:27)

2x7"

Fiction / Ficsg 25 (UK)

1. "Why Can't I Be You?" (3:12)
2. "A Japanese Dream" (3:27)

1. "Six Different Ways [Live in Orange]" (3:26)
2. "Push [Live in Orange]" (4:35)

12"

Fiction / Ficsx 25 (UK)

1. "Why Can't I Be You? [Extended Mix]" (8:07)
2. "A Japanese Dream [Extended Mix]" (5:47)

CDV

Fiction / 080 184-2 (UK)

1. "Why Can't I Be You? [Extended Mix]" (8:10)
2. "A Japanese Dream [Extended Mix]" (5:52)
3. "Hey You!!!" (2:23)
4. "Why Can't I Be You?" (3:31) [Video]

• also released on German CD Polydor 888 454-2

Personnel

• Robert Smith - Voice, Guitar, Keyboards
• Lol Tolhurst - Keyboards
• Porl Thompson - Guitar, Keyboards
• Simon Gallup - Bass
• Boris Williams - Drums
• Francoise Kevorkian, Roy St. Germain - Remix

References

• Apter, Jeff. Never Enough: The Story of The Cure. Omnibus Press, 2005. ISBN 1-84449-827-1.

Notes

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics