You Make My Dreams
1981 single by Hall & Oates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"You Make My Dreams" is a song by American duo Daryl Hall & John Oates, taken from their ninth studio album, Voices (1980). The song reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1981.[3] The track received 154,000 digital sales between 2008 and 2009 according to Nielsen SoundScan.[4]
| "You Make My Dreams" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Original US single | ||||
| Single by Daryl Hall & John Oates | ||||
| from the album Voices | ||||
| B-side | "Gotta Lotta Nerve (Perfect Perfect)" | |||
| Released | April 1981 | |||
| Recorded | 1980 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:10 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Producers |
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| Daryl Hall & John Oates singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "You Make My Dreams" on YouTube | ||||
The song has sold over 1.8 million copies in the UK as of June 2024, despite having never charted in the country.[5]
Composition
John Oates said the song came about "through a happy accident. A guitar player friend of mine and myself were jamming in the dressing room, and I started playing a Delta blues and he started playing a Texas swing, and we put them together, and all of a sudden into my head popped "you make my dreams." I just started singing it. I don't know why, but I did. And it sounded really cool and everyone liked it. It was as simple as that."[6]
Daryl Hall also commented on the iconic piano riff that opens the song and the distinctive sound that is generated by a Yamaha CP-30 in an interview with the BBC on the 40th anniversary of the song’s release. "It's a very unusual edition of a Yamaha called the Yamaha CP-30. There were very few of them made and it wasn't out for very long. Over the years mine got destroyed [and] I cannot duplicate that sound other than with the actual instrument. So I had to search and search until, quite recently, I found one."[7]
Reception
Record World praised the song's "vocal and musical inspiration."[8]
In popular culture
- The song features in the 2009 film (500) Days of Summer, where Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character breaks out into a spontaneous dance number while walking down the street. Daryl Hall and John Oates themselves were originally going to be included in this scene.[9]
- The National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs used the song as their goal song from the 2018–19 season until the end of the 2022–23 season.[10]
Personnel
- Daryl Hall – lead and backing vocals, keyboards
- John Oates – electric guitar, backing vocals
- John Siegler – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Jerry Marotta – drums
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
|
Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[19] | 3× Platinum | 210,000‡ |
| Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[20] | Gold | 45,000‡ |
| Germany (BVMI)[21] | Gold | 300,000‡ |
| Italy (FIMI)[22] | Gold | 50,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[23] | 6× Platinum | 180,000‡ |
| Portugal (AFP)[24] | Gold | 20,000‡ |
| Spain (Promusicae)[25] | Gold | 30,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[5] | 3× Platinum | 1,800,000‡ |
|
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||