These Dreams
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| “These Dreams” | |||||
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| Single by Heart from the album Heart |
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| B-side | "Shell Shock" | ||||
| Released | December 1985 | ||||
| Recorded | The Record Plant, Sausalito, CA (January-April 1985) | ||||
| Genre | Rock/Pop (Power ballad) | ||||
| Length | 4:13 | ||||
| Label | Capitol Records | ||||
| Writer(s) | Martin Page Bernie Taupin |
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| Producer | Ron Nevison | ||||
| Heart singles chronology | |||||
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"These Dreams" is a popular song released in 1985 by the rock band Heart. It was the first song by the band to become a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
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[edit] Origin of the song
In 1985, Martin Page who cowrote several other pop hits, including "We Built This City" and "King of Wishful Thinking", and Bernie Taupin, longtime collaborator of Elton John, wrote the music and lyrics to the song now known as "These Dreams". At the time, Page and Taupin were under contract to Columbia Records and the record company offered the song to Stevie Nicks, who expressed no interest in recording it. Heart had just recently signed with Capitol. While the band had previously recorded their own material, they were impressed by "These Dreams" and agreed to use it on their upcoming album.
"These Dreams" differed from past Heart hits in that it was a polished, pop power ballad. The song also marked the first Heart single on which lead vocals were performed by Nancy Wilson instead of Ann Wilson. According to The Billboard Book of Number One Hits by Fred Bronson, when it came time for Nancy Wilson to record her vocal, she was suffering from a cold and her voice sounded somewhat raspy and gravelly. After the song reached its peak of success, producers reportedly wanted Nancy to recreate the gravelly sound on future recordings, asking her, "Can't you just get sick again?"
[edit] Song's success
"These Dreams" was released as the third single from Heart's 1985 album Heart. Following two consecutive US top-ten singles, the song elevated the band's success even further, becoming Heart's first single to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on Saturday, March 22, 1986. It also became Heart's first (and, to date, only) number one song in the US Adult Contemporary chart and peaked at number sixty-two in the UK Singles Chart; however, a re-issue released in 1988 reached number eight. On the United World Chart, "These Dreams" stayed at the top spot for thirteen-weeks and it was named the top song on the Year End chart for 1986.
The music video for "These Dreams" received heavy airplay from MTV and was the third of four US top-ten singles from the Heart album. The single's B-side, "Shell Shock", was also the B-side of Heart's previous single "Never".
The petite sail-shaped electric guitar Nancy played in the music video was the creation of Nashville luthier David Petschulat which had been purchased years prior.
[edit] The song's storyline
This song was dedicated (on the album) to Nancy Wilson's good friend Sharon Hess who died of Leukemia shortly before the song was made.[1] The lyrics of the song describe the fantasy world a person enters when faced with a difficult situation in real life. The final verse seemingly suggests that, moments before awakening, what one desires the most is exactly that which is out of reach in a dream: "In a wood, full of princes, freedom is a kiss. But the prince hides his face, from dreams in the mist".
[edit] Appearances in other media
- An instrumental version of "These Dreams" can be heard in an episode of season 6 (2006-7) of The Sopranos.
- The song was covered in Italian by the pop classical group The Three Graces on their 2008 self titled album.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3443 These Dreams by Heart Songfacts
| Preceded by "Sara" by Starship |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single March 22, 1986 |
Succeeded by "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco |
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