"You Make My Dreams" is a song by the American duo Hall & Oates, taken from their ninth studio album, ''

Voices Voices or The Voices may refer to: Film and television * ''Voices'' (1920 film), by Chester M. De Vonde, with Diana Allen * ''Voices'' (1973 film), a British horror film * ''Voices'' (1979 film), a film by Robert Markowitz * ''Voices'' (19 ...

'' (1980). The song reached number five on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1981. The track received 154,000 digital sales between 2008 and 2009 according to

Nielsen SoundScan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

. The song has sold over 1 million copies in the UK to date, 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 Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

and he started playing a

Texas swing Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to danc ...

, 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." Daryl Hall also commented on the iconic piano riff that opens the song and the distinctive sound that is generated by a Yamaha CP30 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 CP30. There were very few of them made and it wasn't out for very long. Over the years mine got destroyed ndI cannot duplicate that sound other than with the actual instrument. So I had to search and search until, quite recently, I found one.”

In popular culture

*The song features in a memorable scene in the 2009 film

(500) Days of Summer ''500 Days of Summer'' (stylized as ''(500) Days of Summer'') is a 2009 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, and produced by Mark Waters. The film stars ...

, where Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character breaks out into a spontaneous dance number while walking down the street. *The song appears in a 2018 commercial for

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores an ...

, promoting a Father's Day sale, as well as a 2019 commercial for

KFC KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...

Australia. *Starting in the 2018–19 season, the song has been used by the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League as their goal song during their home games..

Personnel

* Daryl Hall – lead vocals and backing vocals, synthesizer *

John Oates John William Oates (born April 7, 1948) is an American musician, best known as half of the rock and soul duo Hall & Oates, with Daryl Hall. He has played rock, R&B, and soul music, acting as a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer ...

– electric guitar and backing vocals *John Siegler – bass and backing vocals * Jerry Marotta – drums

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Hall & Oates 1980 songs 1981 singles Hall & Oates songs Songs written by John Oates Songs written by Daryl Hall RCA Records singles Songs written by Sara Allen Songs about dreams