A-side "Do What You Do" Genre Synthpop
new wave Label Arista | Format 7"
12" Length 4:22 | |
Released December 21, 1984 (1984-12-21) | ||
"Tell Me I'm Not Dreamin' (Too Good to Be True)" is a song by Jermaine Jackson featuring his younger brother Michael Jackson, taken from Jermaine Jackson's self-titled album. Jason Elias of Allmusic called this song "percolating and infectious."
Background
The song was nominated at the 1985 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The vocal version of "Tell Me I'm Not Dreamin'" was on the B-side to both the 7" and 12" versions of Jermaine Jackson's single, "Do What You Do", while an instrumental version of the song was on the B-side to another Jermaine Jackson song, "Dynamite".
In her 1993 book Michael Jackson: The King of Pop, author Lisa D. Campbell states that "although it was never officially released as a single because of legal difficulties between Michael's label, Epic, and Jermaine's label, Arista, the song did receive a lot of airplay." As a result, Billboard at the time could not show the song on any "single" chart. Billboard had not yet begun publishing the airplay chart on which it would have registered. The song, however, did register on Radio and Records' Top 40 chart, a chart based solely on airplay, peaking at No. 6 in June 1984. The song was most successful on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, where it spent three weeks at No. 1 that same June. The song was performed as a medley with some of Jermaine Jackson's other solo hits ("Let's Get Serious" and "Dynamite") on the Jacksons' 1984 "Victory Tour".
In 1988, Robert Palmer covered the song on his album, Heavy Nova. It was released as a single in June 1989 and reached #60 on the Billboard Hot 100.