Dreams (Fleetwood Mac song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
"Dreams"
Single by Fleetwood Mac
from the album Rumours
B-side "Songbird"
Released March 24, 1977
Format 7"single
Recorded 1976
Genre Rock
Length 4:17
Label Reprise
Writer Stevie Nicks
Producer Fleetwood Mac, Richard Dashut and Ken Caillat
Certification Gold (RIAA (U.S.)September 14, 1977)
Fleetwood Mac singles chronology
"Go Your Own Way"
(1976)
"Dreams"
(1977)
"Don't Stop"
(1977)
Audio sample
Info (help·info)

"Dreams" is a song written by singer Stevie Nicks, for her group Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album, Rumours. The song was the only U.S. number one hit for the group, and remains one of their best known songs. In the lyrics, a woman warns a man that he can be driven mad by loneliness in the wake of a broken love affair.

Contents

The members of Fleetwood Mac were experiencing emotional upheavals while recording Rumors. Drummer Mick Fleetwood was going through a divorce. Bass player John McVie was separating from his wife, keyboard player Christine McVie. Guitarist Lindsay Buckingham and Nicks were ending their eight-year relationship. "We had to go through this elaborate exercise of denial," explains Buckingham to Blender Magazine, "keeping our personal feelings in one corner of the room while trying to be professional in the other." [1] These circumstances inspired the writing of "Dreams."

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 and 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" reached the number one spot in the United States on June 18, 1977, and held it for one week. It went to #24 in the United Kingdom.

A performance of the song on stage was used as the promotional video. Fleetwood Mac wouldn't begin to make concept music videos till 1979.

1996 saw the band Whiskeytown (fronted by Ryan Adams, who - since branching out as a solo artist - has been very vocal about his appreciation of Fleetwood Mac) cover the song live and on their unreleased album A Stranger Is Born (they continued to cover it live until they disbanded in 2000)[1]. In 1997, The Corrs covered the song on their album Talk on Corners, and 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. Japanese pop singer Fayray has covered "Dreams" on her 2005 covers album, and Chihiro Yonekura covered it on her 2003 album Yakusoku no Basho e. Also in 1995 Letters to Cleo contributed a version of the song to the compilation album Spirit of '73: Rock for Choice. Atlanta-based indie rock group Snowden recorded a version of the song for an internet-only EP entitled "Fuel of the Celebration" in 2006.

  1. ^ a b c d e "The Greatest Songs Ever! Dreams". Blender Magazine. Retrieved January 1, 2007.
Preceded by
"I'm Your Boogie Man" by KC and the Sunshine Band
Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
June 18, 1977
Succeeded by
"Got to Give It Up (Part 1)" by Marvin Gaye


Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.