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"You Make My Dreams"
Dutch vinyl single
Single by Daryl Hall & John Oates
from the album Voices
B-side"Gotta Lotta Nerve (Perfect Perfect)"
ReleasedApril 1981
Recorded1980
Genre
Length3:06
LabelRCA
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Daryl Hall
  • John Oates
Daryl Hall & John Oates singles chronology
"Kiss on My List"
(1980) 		"You Make My Dreams"
(1981) 		"Private Eyes"
(1981)
Music video
"You Make My Dreams" on YouTube

"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.[2] The track received 154,000 digital sales between 2008 and 2009 according to Nielsen SoundScan.[3]

The song has sold over one million copies in the UK to date, despite having never charted in the country.[citation needed]

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."[4]

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.”[5]

Reception

Record World praised the song's "vocal and musical inspiration."[6]

In popular culture

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[16] 3× Platinum 210,000‡
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[17] Gold 45,000‡
Portugal (AFP)[18] Gold 20,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[19] 2× Platinum 1,200,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ "You Make My Dreams by Daryl Hall & John Oates - Track Info | AllMusic". AllMusic.
  2. ^ AllMusic Hall & Oates chart history
  3. ^ Donahue, Ann (November 3, 2010). "Hall & Oates Embrace Their Hipster Faithful". Billboard. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  4. ^ MacIntosh, Dan (April 7, 2011). "John Oates : Songwriter Interviews". Songfacts.com. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  5. ^ "Hall And Oates: How You Make My Dreams became a streaming colossus". BBC News. June 10, 2021. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  6. ^ "Hits of the Week" (PDF). Record World. May 2, 1981. p. 1. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  7. ^ Mary Sollosi. "Here's how the '(500) Days of Summer' Hall & Oates dance sequence came together". Ew.com. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  8. ^ Luke Fox (October 5, 2018). "Auston Matthews among fans of Leafs new Hall & Oates goal song". Sportsnet.
  9. ^ "Daryl Hall John Oates Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  10. ^ "Daryl Hall John Oates Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  11. ^ "CASH BOX Top 100 Singles – Week ending July 18, 1981". Archived from the original on September 17, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2018.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Cash Box magazine.
  12. ^ "Hall + Oates". Wweb.uta.edu. Archived from the original on January 4, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  13. ^ "You make my dreams come true". Wweb.uta.edu.
  14. ^ "Top 100 Hits of 1981/Top 100 Songs of 1981". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
  15. ^ "Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles". Cash Box. December 26, 1981. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  16. ^ "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2019 Singles" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  17. ^ "Danish single certifications – Daryl Hall & John Oates – You Make My Dreams (Come True)". IFPI Danmark. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  18. ^ "Portuguese single certifications – Daryl Hall & John Oates – You Make My Dreams" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
  19. ^ "British single certifications – Daryl Hall & John Oates – You Make My Dreams". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
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