Dreams (Fleetwood Mac song)

"Dreams"

German vinyl single
Single by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Rumours
B-side "Songbird"
Released 24 March 1977 (USA)
June 1977 (UK)
Format 7"
Recorded 1976
Genre Soft rock
Length 4:17
Label Warner Bros.
Writer(s) Stevie Nicks
Producer(s) Fleetwood Mac, Richard Dashut
Certification Gold (RIAA) – 14 September 1977)
Fleetwood Mac singles chronology
"Don't Stop"
(1977 UK)
"Go Your Own Way"
(1976 USA)		 "Dreams"
(1977)		 "You Make Loving Fun"
(1977 UK)
"Don't Stop"
(1977 USA)
Rumours track listing
Audio sample
file info · help

"Dreams" is a song written by singer Stevie Nicks, for the group Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album, Rumours. It is the only U.S. No. 1 hit for the group where it sold over a million copies, and remains one of their best known songs.

Background and writing

The members of Fleetwood Mac were experiencing emotional upheavals while recording Rumours. Drummer Mick Fleetwood was going through a divorce. Bassist John McVie was separating from his wife, keyboardist Christine McVie. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were ending their eight-year relationship. "We had to go through this elaborate exercise of denial," explained Buckingham to Blender magazine, "keeping our personal feelings in one corner of the room while trying to be professional in the other."[1]

Nicks wrote the song at the Record Plant studio in Sausalito, California, in early 1976. "One day when I wasn't required in the main studio," remembers singer Stevie Nicks to Blender, "I took a Fender Rhodes piano and went into another studio that was said to belong to Sly, of Sly & the Family Stone. It was a black-and-red room, with a sunken pit in the middle where there was a piano, and a big black-velvet bed with Victorian drapes."[1]

"I sat down on the bed with my keyboard in front of me," continues Nicks. "I found a drum pattern, switched my little cassette player on and wrote 'Dreams' in about 10 minutes. Right away I liked the fact that I was doing something with a dance beat, because that made it a little unusual for me."[1]

When Nicks played the song to the rest of the group, they decided to record it the following day. Only a basic track was recorded at Sausalito. Recording assistant Cris Morris remembers that "all (they) kept was the drum track and live vocal from Stevie – the guitars and bass were added later in Los Angeles."[1]

Christine McVie described the song as having "just three chords and one note in the left hand" and "boring" when Nicks played a rough version on the piano. McVie changed her mind, after Lindsey "fashioned three sections out of identical chords, making each section sound completely different. He created the impression that there's a thread running through the whole thing."[1]

"Dreams" was the second single from the Rumours album in the US, and it reached the number one spot on 18 June 1977, and held it for one week. On the AC/Easy Listening chart, "Dreams" was Fleetwood Mac's highest charting song during the 1970s when it reached No. 11 on that chart.[2] In the United Kingdom, "Dreams" went to No. 24 as the third single, staying in the top 40 for eight weeks, following "Go Your Own Way" (#38) and "Don't Stop" (#32). A performance of the song on stage was used as the promotional video. Fleetwood Mac would not begin to make concept music videos until 1979.

Personnel

The Corrs version

"Dreams"
Single by The Corrs
from the album Talk on Corners
Released 4 May 1998
Format CD single
Recorded 1995
Genre Pop, folk rock (album version)
House, dance (single version)
Length 4:18
Label 143/Lava/Atlantic
Writer(s) Stevie Nicks
Producer(s) Oliver Leiber
Certification Silver (BPI)
The Corrs singles chronology
"What Can I Do"
(1998)		 "Dreams"
(1998)		 "So Young"
(1998)

"Dreams" is a cover of the Fleetwood Mac song by The Corrs. "Dreams" was originally recorded for Legacy: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, which features cover versions including "Don't Stop" by Elton John, "You Make Loving Fun" by Jewel and others from the Goo Goo Dolls and the Cranberries. It turned out to be the first big hit for The Corrs in the UK and the video won the "Best Adult Contemporary Video" award from Billboard magazine in 1998. When the song became a hit, the Corrs' second studio album, Talk on Corners, was re-released with "Dreams" added.

The Corrs performed "Dreams" with Mick Fleetwood from Fleetwood Mac in their concert at the Royal Albert Hall on St. Patrick's Day, 1998 (which was also Caroline Corr's 25th birthday).

Tee's remix made "Dreams" reach No. 6 in the UK single charts and on the whole stayed in the charts for 10 weeks.

Track listing

  1. "Dreams" (radio edit) – 4:18
  2. "Dreams" (Tee's Radio) – 3:53
  3. "Dreams" (Tee's New Radio) (Todd's Henry St. Mix) – 3:52
  4. "Dreams" (TNT Pop extended mix) – 8:40
  5. "Dreams" (Tee's Club) – 7:39
  6. "Dreams" (Tee's in House mix) – 4:32

Charts

Chart (1999) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart[3] 47
Canadian Adult Contemporary[4] 10
Canadian RPM Top 100 Singles[5] 38
French Singles Chart[6] 52
German Singles Chart[7] 73
Irish Singles Chart[8] 6
Netherlands Mega Single Top 100[9] 71
UK Singles Chart[10] 6

Certifications

Country Certification Sales/shipments
United Kingdom Silver[11] 200,000+

Deep Dish cover featuring Stevie Nicks

In 2005, Nicks contributed new vocals to a remake of the song by DJ and house music duo Deep Dish. The song appears on their album George Is On, and was a top twenty UK Singles Chart hit and climbed to number 26 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart. Also, an edited version of the song is included on her 2007 album Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks

Chart (2006) Peak
position
Australia Singles Chart 27
Netherlands Singles Chart 18
Belgium Singles Chart 42
Irish Singles Chart 22
Finland Singles Chart 6
US Hot Dance Club Play 26
UK Singles Chart 14
Italy Singles Chart 39

Dana Williams and Leighton Meester also published a cover of the song on YouTube in 2014.

Bastille and Gabrielle Aplin also did a cover of the song on Bastille's album Other People's Heartache Pt 1

Notes

External links

Preceded by
"I'm Your Boogie Man" by KC and the Sunshine Band		 Billboard Hot 100 number-one single (Fleetwood Mac version)
18 June 1977 		Succeeded by
"Got to Give It Up (Part 1)" by Marvin Gaye