Dreams
by Van Halen
- 144
- BPM
- C major
- Key
- 8B
- Camelot
- 46
- Danceability
- 22
- Acousticness
Producer Mick Jones had Sammy Hagar singing "Dreams" so high that Hagar began hyperventilating and almost passed out. Jones said he was able to push Hagar to new heights, literally. On the studio recording of the 1986 song Eddie Van Halen played guitar and keyboards, and Hagar sang both of the "higher" lines in the chorus. In concert, bassist Michael Anthony usually took the second one.
Released in May 1986 as the second single from 5150, "Dreams" reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 24 on the Cash Box Top 100. The most widely known of its three videos came out that year and featured the US Navy's Blue Angels flying A-4F Skyhawks. The others were shot in March 1993 at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood.
Nine years after it was released, the song appeared in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. In 2004 it closed the Democratic National Convention after John Kerry's acceptance speech.
Dreams runs at 144 BPM, the tempo of dubstep and trap counted in half time, and hardstyle. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.67 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 417 ms. It is in C major, Camelot 8B, which shares its notes with A minor and mixes cleanly with F major and G major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.