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Dreams (Fleetwood Mac song)

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"Dreams"
Song
B-side"Songbird"

"Dreams" is a song written by singer Stevie Nicks, for the 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.

Background and writing

The members of Fleetwood Mac were experiencing emotional upheavals while recording Rumours. Drummer Mick Fleetwood was going through a divorce. Bass player John McVie was separating from his wife, keyboard player Christine McVie. Guitarist Lindsey 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]

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]

Music and structure

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]

Chart performance

"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.

Music video

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"
Song

"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 like "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.

The Corrs had the honor of performing "Dreams" with Mick Fleetwood from Fleetwood Mac in their legendary concert at the Royal Albert Hall, on St Patrick's Day, 1998 (incidentally, that was also Caroline Corr's 25th birthday).

Tee's remix made "Dreams" one of the most successful Corrs singles ever: it reached #6 in the UK single charts and on the whole stayed in the charts for 10 weeks.

Tracklist

  • CD
  1. "Dreams (Radio edit)" – 4:18
  2. "Dreams (Tee's Radio)" – 3:53
  3. "Dreams (Tee's new radio)" – 3:52
  4. "Dreams (TNT Pop extended mix)" – 8:40
  5. "Dreams (Tee's Club)" – 7:39
  6. "Dreams (In House Mix)" – 4:32

Music video

File:Corrs Dreams music video.jpg.jpg
The Corrs in the music video for "Dreams"

The "Dreams" video was urgently needed, similar to the video for "What Can I Do." The song had made the UK Radio One playlist (BBC One), and needed a video to go along with it. Director Dani Jackobs was originally unavailable because he had a previously scheduled shot in Canada, but he dumped it on the spot and flew to Singapore to shoot "Dreams." When he arrived there, he found that his ideas of a "dreamy, oriental" feel for the video were trashed by Singapore's western looks. Thankfully, the crew found the Thian Hock Keng Buddhist temple in the Telok Ayer Street in Chinatown. The location was found, yet the crew had picked one of the hottest, most humid days of the year (April 10, 1998), so the Corrs were downing copious amounts of "Evian", spending time in the air-conditioned trailers and Andrea even filmed the entire video with her dress unzipped at the back to keep perspiration at bay.

Charts

Chart Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart[2] 47
Canadian Adult Contemporary[3] 10
Canadian Hot 100[4] 38
French Singles Chart[5] 52
German Singles Chart [6] 73
Irish Singles Chart [7] 6
Netherlands Mega Single Top 100[8] 71
UK Singles Chart [9] 6

Certifications

Country Certification Sales/shipments
United Kingdom Silver[10] 200,000+

Other versions

  • 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).[11].
  • 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. This version also appears on their album Sister.
  • Atlanta-based indie rock group Snowden recorded a version of the song for an Internet-only EP entitled Fuel of the Celebration in 2006.
  • Gregorian also covered the song in their 2007 album Masters of Chant Chapter VI.
  • Gil Mantera's Party Dream cover's the song live, as well as Stevie Nick's solo hit, "Stand Back".
  • Colin Meloy of The Decemberists adds a chorus of the song to the end of "Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect" during some solo live shows, as evidenced on his 2008 album "Colin Meloy Sings Live!".

Deep Dish cover ft. 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.

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

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e "The Greatest Songs Ever! Dreams". Blender Magazine. Retrieved January 1 2007.
  2. ^ Australian Charts
  3. ^ Canadian Charts (Adult Contemporary)
  4. ^ Canadian Charts
  5. ^ French Charts
  6. ^ German Charts
  7. ^ Irish Charts
  8. ^ Dutch Charts
  9. ^ Everyhit
  10. ^ The Corrs Awards
  11. ^ http://www.answeringbell.com/Answering%20Bell/Songs/dreams.htm
Preceded by Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
June 18 1977 		Succeeded by
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