You Make My Dreams Explained

You Make My Dreams
Cover:	youmakemydreams.jpg
Caption:	Dutch vinyl single
Type:	single
Artist:	Daryl Hall & John Oates
Album:	Voices
B-Side:	Gotta Lotta Nerve (Perfect Perfect)
Released:	April 1981
Recorded:	1980
Genre:	Rock soul new wave^[1] pop^[2]
Length:	3:06
Label:	RCA
Producer:	Daryl Hall John Oates
Prev Title:	Kiss on My List
Prev Year:	1980
Next Title:	Private Eyes
Next Year:	1981

"You Make My Dreams" is a song by American duo Daryl Hall & John Oates, taken from their ninth studio album, Voices (1980). The song reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1981.^[3] The track received 154,000 digital sales between 2008 and 2009 according to Nielsen SoundScan.^[4]

The song has sold over 1.8 million copies in the UK as of June 2024, despite having never charted in the country.

Composition

John Oates said the song came about "through a happy accident, my guitar player friend of mine and myself were jamming in the dressing room, and I started playing a delta blues and he started playing a Texas swing, and we put them together, and all of a sudden into my head popped "you make my dreams." I just started singing it. I don't know why, but I did. And it sounded really cool and everyone liked it. It was as simple as that."^[5]

Daryl Hall also commented on the iconic piano riff that opens the song and the distinctive sound that is generated by a Yamaha CP-30 in an interview with the BBC on the 40th anniversary of the song’s release. “It's a very unusual edition of a Yamaha called the Yamaha CP-30. There were very few of them made and it wasn't out for very long. Over the years mine got destroyed [and] I cannot duplicate that sound other than with the actual instrument. So I had to search and search until, quite recently, I found one.”^[6]

Reception

Record World praised the song's "vocal and musical inspiration."^[7]

In popular culture

• The song features in the 2009 film (500) Days of Summer, where Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character breaks out into a spontaneous dance number while walking down the street. Daryl Hall and John Oates themselves were originally going to be included in this scene.^[8]
• The National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs used the song as their goal song from the 2018–19 season until the end of the 2022–23 season.^[9]

Personnel

• Daryl Hall – lead vocals and backing vocals, synthesizer
• John Oates – electric guitar and backing vocals
• John Siegler – bass and backing vocals
• Jerry Marotta – drums

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)	40
US Cash Box Top 100^[10]	7
US Radio & Records CHR/Pop Airplay Chart^[11] ^[12]	4

Year-end charts

Chart (1981)	Rank
US Billboard Hot 100^[13]	43
US Cash Box^[14]	54

Notes and References

1. Web site: You Make My Dreams by Daryl Hall & John Oates - Track Info | AllMusic . AllMusic. A great example of this skill is “You Make My Dreams,” an effervescent hit from Voices that blends rock, soul and new wave into a chart-ready confection..
2. Billboard Staff. The 500 Best Pop Songs: Staff List. . October 19, 2023. February 15, 2024. The Philly rock ‘n soul duo’s most potent pop blast, as smile-inducing as nearly any of the Motown classics they clearly revered..
3. AllMusic
4. Hall & Oates Embrace Their Hipster Faithful. Donahue. Ann. November 3, 2010. Billboard. August 12, 2017.
5. Web site: John Oates : Songwriter Interviews. MacIntosh. Dan. April 7, 2011. Songfacts.com. February 26, 2021.
6. Web site: Hall And Oates: How You Make My Dreams became a streaming colossus. June 10, 2021. BBC News. June 11, 2021.
7. Record World. May 2, 1981. 1. 2023-02-27. Hits of the Week.
8. Web site: Here's how the '(500) Days of Summer' Hall & Oates dance sequence came together. Mary Sollosi. Ew.com. April 5, 2023.
9. News: Auston Matthews among fans of Leafs new Hall & Oates goal song. Luke Fox. Sportsnet. October 5, 2018.
10. Web site: CASH BOX Top 100 Singles – Week ending July 18, 1981 . March 6, 2018 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20120917021010/http://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/80s_files/19810718.html . September 17, 2012 . Cash Box magazine.
11. Web site: Hall + Oates. Wweb.uta.edu. January 8, 2017. January 4, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170104235520/http://wweb.uta.edu/faculty/gghunt/charts/halloates.html. dead.
12. Web site: You make my dreams come true. Wweb.uta.edu.
13. Web site: Top 100 Hits of 1981/Top 100 Songs of 1981 . Musicoutfitters.com . October 25, 2016.
14. Web site: Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles . https://web.archive.org/web/20120918145923/http://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/80s_files/1981YESP.html . Cash Box . December 26, 1981 . September 18, 2012 . March 6, 2018.