''Dreams of a Love'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by Australian pop-rock band, the Ferrets. Released in October 1977, it peaked at number 20 on the Australian

Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July ...

albums chart. Its production was started by Ian "Molly" Meldrum under the pseudonym, Willie Everfinish – after almost a year the group, assisted by audio engineers

Tony Cohen Anthony Lawrence Cohen (4 June 19572 August 2017) was an Australian music record producer and sound engineer. He worked with Nick Cave's groups the Birthday Party, and then the Bad Seeds from 1979 to 2001. In mid-1986 he had followed Cave to ...

and Ian MacKenzie, finalised the work.

Background

The Ferrets had formed in 1975 and early in the following year they recorded a demo tape, which they sent to Ian "Molly" Meldrum, talent coordinator for

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

(ABC) pop music TV series, ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

''. Meldrum had them signed to

Mushroom Records Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival Mu ...

and started producing their debut album, ''Dreams of a Love'', in July 1976. After nearly a year, production of the album was still incomplete, so the Ferrets took over — assisted by recording engineers,

and Ian MacKenzie — Meldrum was attributed as "Willie Everfinish". In June 1977 they released "Don't Fall in Love" as a single, which they performed on ''Countdown'', it peaked at No. 2 on the

singles chart. Note: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing th ...

(ARIA) created their own

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

in mid-1988. In 1992, Kent back calculated chart positions for 1970–1974. ''Dreams of a Love'' followed in October and achieved gold record status. The album cover depicted a model, Wendy Bannister, holding a snarling ferret at her shoulder.

Track listing

;LP/Cassette

Personnel

;The Ferrets * Philip Eizenberg – guitar * Kenneth Firth – bass guitar, backing vocals * William "Billy" Miller – lead vocals, guitar, strings (arranger) * David Springfield – guitar * Rick Brewer – drums, percussion * Jane Miller – backing vocals, keyboards * Pam Miller – backing vocals ;Additional musicians * Kevin Kasey – choir conductor * David Springfield – guitar, backing vocals * Dave Clarke – flute (track 13) * Brian Godden – banjo (track 6) * Chris Harold – synthesiser (tracks 7, 12) * Nicky Hopkins – piano, voice (track 3) * Peter Jones – strings arranger (tracks 1, 7, 9, 12–13) * Bobby Keys – saxophone (track 2) * Ian Mason – synthesiser (track 7) * Ian Mawson – piano (tracks 2, 5, 7, 9, 11), organ (track 12) * National Boys Choir – choir vocals (tracks 7, 11–12) * Manny Paterakis – percussion (track 7) * Peter Whitford – percussion (tracks 5, 9, 11) ;Recording details * Audio engineer –

, Ian McKenzie * Producer – Willie Everfinish, the Ferrets ;Art works * Artwork – Bill Burrows, Mushroom Art, Steve Malpass * Illustration – George Lazerides * Photograph, cover – Derek Hughes

Charts

References

{{Authority control Mushroom Records albums 1977 debut albums