Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You" - Classic or Dud?

This song makes me indescribably happy. The Levan remix is awesome.

wow, i always thought this was Hall and Oates.

It's got a bit of that vibe, yes.

i've never heard the Levan mix.

They used to play this on the instore radio at the B&Q I worked in as a student. I like it.

I wonder why the real Dan Hartman didn't get to perform his song in the movie?

http://www.foghat.com/fog_band/erik.jpg

Great song.

Levan mix?! Not the first song I'd think deserved one, but I must hear it. This song haunted me for much of my life until I figured out who/what it was in the mid-'90s.

for you, my beloved Eric:

Here he is singing Free Ride, his other big hit with the Edgar Winter Group.

moving sidewalks... minor classic

i love this. have it on a 12" with colonel abrams 'trapped' on the other side. best 12" ever?

the disco version of "free ride" on dan's relight my fire album is so cool.

to anyone who doesn't own his Instant Replay album, you really gotta get it. so good. and it sells for about a dollar. a "Tom Moulton Mix" don't ya know.

is this good?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnDYQglwP1g

I guess not.. I was unable to make it all the way through.

killer revive!

YOU KNOW HOW TO HOLD ME JUST RIGHT

http://cbskyxy.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/dan-hartman-died-3-22-94-brain-tumor.jpg?w=600

g.e. smith... gross...

http://www.vinnie-vincent.com/discography/instant_replay_inner_closeup.jpg

how are they able to pose with so much coke in their brains?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s4kgpwn2zw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBMNKp5GlYM

can... not... resist

i had no idea 'i can dream about you' was dan hartman. just... ^_^

Loved this one as a kid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn8tSwQJ4-Q

Great album art, too.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2800/4342242920_6bb18d3249.jpg

um, embarrassing admission: i thought the dudes in the video did the tune. like until just now.

he moonwalked like a dream on "moving sidewalks" which meant for me as a kid it was instant classic

He also wrote James Brown's "Living in America."

RIP Hartman, Holloway, Norman Harris:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgOhXTiarv0

So many "!!!" moments in these 10 minutes.

Imagine hearing this for the first time, not expecting Holloway to show up at 6:40.

I can think of a moment when this song has ever failed me.

classic!

A delightful song, though knowing that he remained closeted until his AIDS-releated death in 1994 adds a nearly unbearable level of poignancy.

He wasn't closeted from what I've read.

wonder why the real Dan Hartman didn't get to perform his song in the movie?

― henry s, Thursday, December 11, 2008 1:59 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The song first appeared in Streets of Fire, where it was performed by the fictional group The Sorels. The real voice behind the version used in the movie was Winston Ford, but Hartman's version was the one used on the soundtrack album and released as a single.[2] In a Songfacts interview with the film's musical director, Kenny Vance, he recalled "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."[2][3]

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." Hartman then 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 a studio singer. After some contract negotiating, 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."

xpost

I'm going off of Wiki, so grain of salt, but the article describes him as being closeted about both his sexuality and his eventual HIV status. It is certainly conceivable that he may have come out at some point before his death, or that he may have been operating under varying degrees of "outness" for however many years.

we have to define "out." He was out to principal collaborator Charlie Midnight and to many friends. He had no public profile -- he was a behind-the-scenes guy, recall.

Right. My apologies, then, for the mischaracterization of him as a closeted gay man--though, again, I was citing Wikipedia (you know, that thing that I am sure we have both told our students never to do).

Too bad the video wasn't half-Hartman, half-movie, like Beaver Brown Cafferty & The Cruisers.

Imagine hearing this for the first time, not expecting Holloway to show up at 6:40.

Still awesome every time.

He had some hits before this one, certainly in the UK.

I sing this bass line in my sleep

brotherlovesdub at 6:51 11 Dec 08

wow, i always thought this was Hall and Oates


Only just noticed that H&O actually DID cover this song in 2004 but not sure if this post was acknowledging that.

I sing this bass line in my sleep

― Morning Dew key (Neanderthal), Wednesday, December 24, 2025

I’m a huge Dan Hartman Stan.

Surprised there’s not more discussion of his shelved mid 80s album “white boy” featuring the prescient “age of simulation”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsvusqpqd_g

Or “waiting to see you”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebWfRKNKBug

Or “in the heat of the night”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgXAO6lx9pE

Obviously relight my fire is one of the best songs ever made but I think Scott upthread mentioned his disco album as being great too and I agree, I really like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pog-CgeNyPE

The second half of this track he did with Edgar winter is incredible as well.

“Paradise” / “sides” … paradise is great but skip to 2:50 for a really heartbreaking and affecting dan Hartman classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0CVLq5mGUs

"The Age of Simulation" sounds like his attempt to write a 1983 ZZ Top single.

Instant Replay (up above in a YouTube embed) is one of my favorite album covers.