"I Can Dream About You" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Dan Hartman on the soundtrack album of the film Streets of Fire. Released in 1984 as a single from the soundtrack, and included on Hartman's album I Can Dream About You, it reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song first appeared in
Streets of Fire, where it was performed by the fictional
R&B group "The Sorels". The real voice behind the version used in the film was Winston Ford, but Hartman's version was the one used on the soundtrack album and released as a single. In a
Songfacts interview with the film's musical director,
Kenny Vance, he recalled the following:
The same guy that sings lead on that and 'Countdown to Love,' a song that I wrote for the film, was a guy working at a
Radio Shack (Winston Ford), and I think when you look at the film and The Sorels are singing it live in the movie, that was the version that was supposed to come out, and I recorded that version. But then when Dan Hartman heard it, I don't know what happened next, but I know that he took that guy's voice off and he put his own on, and he had a hit with it. Hollywood is a very slippery place.
Originally, producer
Jimmy Iovine had asked Hartman to write a song for a film he was working on. Hartman was told that the song was going to be sung by four
Black guys in a concert situation within the film, and Hartman ended up thinking about a demo he made of "I Can Dream About You". As described by Tuber (1985), Hartman went through some "legal maneuvering to get the benefit of his breakthrough" The use of the song in the film being performed by actors did not feature Hartman on vocals but rather Ford. After some negotiating to enforce the original contract, Hartman insisted he sing the song on the soundtrack, and that his version be released if a single were to be issued from the soundtrack album. Additionally, any music video had to feature his own voice using the song. These clauses helped Hartman become an "overnight sensation" despite the fact that Hartman had been a working musician since adolescence. In an interview snippet from Portzline (2014), Hartman elaborated on another controversy related to the song—stating that "...some people had a fit because it was my name and my voice coming out of this group that looked like the
Temptations. It was a big mess, but it was the best I could do under the circumstance."
n the film, the Sorels are played by
Stoney Jackson (lead singer),
Grand L. Bush,
Mykelti Williamson and
Robert Townsend (the latter three portraying backing singers). In a 2012 interview, Williamson stated that people were initially confused and thought that Jackson was Hartman. As a result, Hartman was supposedly upset; however, he might have had a change of heart by the following year due to the "good publicity" that the confusion generated (Tuber, 1985) Although the choreography for the Sorels was arranged by
Jeffrey Hornaday, the actors eventually improvised much of the dance moves with Hornaday’s support. Williamson further mentioned that he, Jackson, Bush and Townsend received vocal coaching from
Jim Gilstrap and they provided background vocals for the track. In the vinyl releases, Hartman,
Joe Pizzulo, and Ford are credited as providing backing vocals for the song. Thus, in the interview, Williamson may have been referring to the version that appeared in the film with Ford's vocals. Frank and George Simms, who perform as The Simms Brothers Band and worked as backup singers for artists such as
David Bowie, revealed in a 2021 podcast that they sang on "I Can Dream About You" as a favor to Hartman but were uncredited due to the song's quick release thereafter.
Dan Hartman - I Can Dream About You
