Dreams

The song Dreams, written and performed by Stevie Nicks, emerged at a time of intense personal tension for the members of Fleetwood Mac during the recording of their album Rumours in 1976. While Mick Fleetwood was going through a divorce, Christine McVie and John McVie were separating, and Lindsey Buckingham and Nicks were ending their eight-year relationship, the band found themselves needing to set their personal feelings aside to work professionally. It was in this context of emotional turbulence that Nicks composed Dreams in just about ten minutes, sitting at a Fender Rhodes piano in a private studio in Sausalito, California, said to belong to Sly Stone. What made it special from the start for her was the incorporation of a danceable rhythm, something uncommon in her style.

Initially, the band wasn't entirely convinced by the song. Christine McVie described it as simple, with "just three chords and one note in the left hand," and even "boring" when Nicks played a preliminary version. However, Lindsey Buckingham managed to shape the structure, creating three distinct sections from the same chords, which generated a sense of cohesion and flow. Producer Ken Caillat contributed to this hypnotic effect by creating an eight-bar drum loop with Mick Fleetwood's percussion. For the electric guitars, four distinct signals were used, all panned in stereo, which, according to producer Richard Dashut, allowed the guitars to move "majestically" across the left and right channels. The song was recorded in Los Angeles, and the drum track and lead vocals by Stevie Nicks from the initial Sausalito sessions were retained.

In the United States, Dreams was released as a single in March 1977 and became a resounding success, reaching the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, being the band's only number-one single in that country. It also topped the charts in Canada. In late 2020, the song experienced an unexpected resurgence in popularity thanks to a viral TikTok video. This phenomenon caused Dreams to reappear on national music charts and streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music in several countries. In 2021, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it ninth on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."