Dreams - Fleetwood Mac (1977) 9/18/21

A few days ago, Rolling Stone Magazine announced that for the first time in 17 years, they've revamped their list of the "Top 500 Songs of All Time."

It makes perfect sense: A lot of Great Music has been created since 2004, and deserves to be included. Plus, musical tastes have changed--which is only natural--and some songs have not aged well.

Of course, this means that since October of 2019, every post I've made that references a position on the Top 500 is no longer accurate.

That DOESN'T mean the song is any "less great," it just means there's more competition. In a few cases, a song from the '70s has been added that WASN'T on the previous list. In other cases, a song went up (or down) several notches--and some fell off the list entirely. But that said, who's to say a song still isn't in the Top 550 or 600?

After all, "Great Songs" are Great Songs!"

In looking at Rolling Stone's new list, I have found a number of '70s tunes that I have yet to highlight, and one of them is in the Top 10 (at #9): 1977's "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac!

Stevie Nicks wrote the song during a break in the middle of the "Rumours" sessions. She and Lindsey Buckingham were breaking up, and It wasn't pretty.

She needed to be alone, so she found an empty studio down the hall from where the band was recording--and it was amazing! The room was black and red, and featured a sunken pit in the middle with a piano, a black velvet bed and Victorian drapes. (Apparently it was set up for Sly & The Family Stone, but no one was there to record.)

Stevie sat down on the bed and started playing the piano. TEN MINUTES later, she had written "Dreams."

When she played it for the rest of the band, they (especially Lindsey), didn't care much for it, but Stevie begged them to record it, so they did, and what happened when it was released as single surprised them all--and continues to do so.

It went to #1 in both the US and Canada: the ONLY #1 song Fleetwood Mac ever had in North America!

But that's not all!

Thanks to a tweet that went viral, "Dreams" re-appeared on Billboard's Hot Rock Chart in 2018...and then, after being used in a popular Tik-Tok video in 2020, it hit #1 AGAIN, this time on Billboard's Rock Digital Song Chart. It also reached #17 on the Hot 100.

Pretty amazing...and certainly a great reason why Rolling Stone ranks "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac at #9 on their NEW "Top 500 of All Time!"

"Dreams" (1977):