It’s no secret that Fleetwood Mac struggled with a number of behind-the-scenes issues. Many of these problems have to do with the dynamics amongst the band members. The band, however, occasionally experienced creative differences. Despite “Dreams” became one of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest songs, Stevie Nicks and the rest of the band were at disagreements over it.
Stevie Nicks pleaded with Fleetwood Mac to record ‘Dreams’
Stevie Nicks wrote the song “Dreams” for Fleetwood Mac in 1977, which was included on their Rumours album. It’s one of the band’s most well-known songs, and it’s still relevant today, as seen by the fact that a terrific video with skating and cranberry juice has made it famous online.
The song “Dreams” was written by Nicks during a Rumours recording session. The singer claimed she created the song in “about 10 minutes” based on a basic chord progression in a 2005 interview with Blender.
Nicks shared, “I sat down on the bed with my keyboard in front of me, 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.”
Her bandmates weren’t impressed when she presented it to them. Nicks begged Fleetwood Mac, however, to at least give it a go. Nicks said, “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.”
Lindsey Buckingham rearranged the song to make it work
Buckingham and Nicks struggled with an on-and-off relationship that frequently ended in fights when they were recording Rumours. The guitarist could still put his own emotions aside and focus on “Dreams” to improve Stevie Nicks’ song to its highest potential. The music, according to Christine McVie, was “boring” when Nicks originally played it for her; however, Buckingham’s rearranging rescued it.
McVie told Blender, “When Stevie first played it for me on the piano, it was just three chords and one note in the left hand. I thought, ‘This is really boring,’ but the Lindsey genius came into play, and he 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.”
How did ‘Dreams’ perform on the charts?
The follow-up single to “Go Your Own Way” for Rumours was “Dreams.” As “Dreams” reached its highest point at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, it overtook “Go Your Own Way” on the rankings. Stevie Nicks had a good reason for encouraging her comrades to listen to “Dreams” because it is still their lone No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts.
Their most popular and commercially successful album is Rumours. Over 40 million copies have been sold, and it peaked at No. 1 on several charts. Because “Dreams” is so well-known, audience members usually expect to hear it when they watch Nicks perform live. Nicks has never grown weary of singing this song, despite how monotonous it has become.
She explained, “Sometimes you can get tired of singing a certain song over and over again, But i have never gone onstage, either with Fleetwood Mac or in my solo shows, without singing ‘Dreams’. I don’t think I could.”
