Tommy february6 -- I Only Want to Be with You

 

When I was looking things up to set up my post of a ROY article devoted to the pop song "I Only Want to Be with You", I wasn't aware that I would be going down quite the long rabbit hole in terms of who sang the original and the number of famous singers who have covered it over the decades. I went from Dusty Springfield to Annie Lennox!

Commenter Brian Mitchell noted that one of his favourite versions of the song had been done by someone that in retrospect would be an ideal candidate to cover it. I am talking about singer-songwriter Tomoko Kawase（川瀬智子）in her Tommy february6 persona. Yup, in July 2004, when the vocalist for the rock band the brilliant green had been exploring her own internal aspect for 80s synthpop, she released her 7th single under that guise, "Lovely ~ Yume Miru Lovely Boy" （L・O・V・E・L・Y 〜夢見るLOVELY BOY〜...Dreaming Lovely Boy） with a coupling song that was a cover of "I Only Want to Be with You".

In the original ROY article for this one, of course I heard quite a few different arrangements. This one by Tommy february6 stands out for its cutesy bleep-bloop tones compared to the 80s dance-pop of Samantha Fox's take. Perhaps Kawase was inspired to cover "I Only Want to Be with You" after having done a similar cover of that old disco classic "I'm in the mood for dancing" originally by The Nolans the previous year. Incidentally, "I Only Want to Be with You" was released in Japan in 1963 under the title "Futari dake no Date"（二人だけのデート...A Date Just for Two）. Hmph...I thought dates were just for two.