WCSX Classic Cuts
Van Halen: “Dreams”
The Hook: Van Halen get help from a foreigner.
Year: 1986
Album: 5150
Writers: Edward Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar
Stats: The second single from 5150 went to number-six on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and number-22 on the Hot 100.
The Background: Sammy Hagar credits their producer, Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones, with “squeezing” a great vocal out of him and arranging a bunch of different Eddie Van Halen guitar parts into a coherent song.
Sammy Hagar on what he thinks about when he hears Van Halen’s “Dreams.” OC:…that song. :24
“I think of Mick Jones from Foreigner, who produced that record, who squeezed that out of me. Eddie had a bunch of different parts and he goes, ‘I like that part, I like that part, that should be the verse,’ and he just cut it all up and made a song. He goes, ‘Now Sammy, what are you gonna to this?’ I’m going, ‘I don’t know – I was singing it an octave lower. And he goes, ‘No man, go for it!’ And I just went, [sings] ‘Whoa that’s…”And everybody in the studio just hands went up, ‘Yes!’ y’know, and I just went home and wrote those lyrics. And I’m real proud of that song.”