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I Can Dream About You

"I Can Dream About You"
Dan Hartman - I Can Dream About You single cover.jpg
Single by Dan Hartman
from the album I Can Dream About You and Streets of Fire
Released April 1984
August 1985 (UK re-issue)
Format 7"
Recorded 1983
Genre Pop rock
Length 4:12
3:50 (7")
Label MCA
Writer(s) Dan Hartman
Producer(s) Dan Hartman, Jimmy Iovine
Dan Hartman singles chronology
"All I Need"
(1981)
"I Can Dream About You"
(1984)
"We Are the Young"
(1984)

"I Can Dream About You" is a song performed by American singer Dan Hartman on the soundtrack album of the film Streets of Fire. Released in 1984 as a single from the soundtrack, and included on Hartman's album I Can Dream About You, it reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song first appeared in Streets of Fire, where it was performed by the fictional group The Sorels. The real voice behind the version used in the film was Winston Ford, but Hartman's version was the one used on the soundtrack album and released as a single. In a Songfacts interview with the film's musical director, Kenny Vance, he recalled "The same guy that sings lead on that and "Countdown to Love," a song that I wrote for the film, was a guy working at a Radio Shack (Winston Ford), and I think when you look at the film and The Sorels are singing it live in the movie, that was the version that was supposed to come out, and I recorded that version. But then when Dan Hartman heard it, I don't know what happened next, but I know that he took that guy's voice off and he put his own on, and he had a hit with it. Hollywood is a very slippery place."

Originally, producer Jimmy Iovine had asked Hartman to write a song for a film he was working on. Hartman was told that the song was going to be sung by four black guys in a concert situation within the film, and Hartman ended up thinking about a demo he made of "I Can Dream About You." Hartman then went through some legal maneuvering to get the benefit of his breakthrough. The use of the song in the film being performed by actors did not feature Hartman on vocals but a studio singer. After some contract negotiating, Hartman insisted he sing the song on the soundtrack, and that his version be released if a single were to be issued from the soundtrack album. Additionally, any music video had to feature his own voice using the song. These clauses helped Hartman become an "overnight sensation." Both Hartman and Iovine worked on his 1984, same-titled solo album I Can Dream About You, following the song's use in the film. The album would spawn two other Top 40 charting singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 – "We Are the Young" and "Second Nature".

According to Daryl Hall, Hartman had initially written the song with Hall & Oates in mind, and offered the song to them to record as their own. Hall & Oates declined, as their new album was about to be released. Later in their career, however, they issued an album of covers called Our Kind of Soul, in 2004, on which they recorded their own version (with changed lyrics) of Hartman's song. When performing the song live in February 2005, Hall revealed before the performance; "Here's a song that we did on the new album that we sort of did twenty years late. An old friend our ours, Dan Hartman, wrote this song. I remember back in the day he came up to me and said 'You know, I have this great song I wrote for you guys. It's you, you know? – you have to sing this song.' And unfortunately we had just finished an album, we couldn't put it on the album so I said sorry Dan. About six months later I was watching MTV and there it was, and it was a hit for him, God bless him. So here we are twenty years later, I hope he's hearing it, and I hope he enjoys it."


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