Dreams (Fleetwood Mac song)

Background and composition

The members of Fleetwood Mac were experiencing emotional upheavals while recording the Rumours album. Mick Fleetwood was going through a divorce. John McVie was separating from his wife Christine McVie. 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."

Nicks wrote the song in early 1976 at the Record Plant studio in Sausalito, California. "One day when I wasn't required in the main studio," remembers Nicks to Blender magazine, "I took a Fender Rhodes piano and went into another studio that was said to belong to Sly Stone, 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."

"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."

When Nicks played the song to the rest of the group, "They weren't nuts about it. But I said 'Please! Please record this song, at least try it'. Because the way I play things sometimes... you really have to listen." The band recorded 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." 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."

Chart performance

In the United States, "Dreams" reached the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 18, 1977, and held it for one week. On the Adult Contemporary chart, "Dreams" was Fleetwood Mac's highest charting single during the 1970s when it reached number 11. In the United Kingdom, "Dreams" went to number 24, staying in the top 40 for eight weeks.

Credits and personnel

The Corrs version

The Corrs originally recorded "Dreams" for Legacy: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, the 20th anniversary album of cover versions which also featured "Don't Stop" by Elton John, "You Make Loving Fun" by Jewel and others from the Goo Goo Dolls and the Cranberries. It was then remixed by Todd Terry for single release and became the first big hit for The Corrs in the UK, reaching number 6 in the UK singles chart and staying in the chart for 10 weeks. The video also won the "Best Adult Contemporary Video" award from Billboard magazine in 1998. The Corrs' second studio album, Talk on Corners, was then 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).

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

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 US 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.