Monday October 19, 2020 “I Can Dream About You” The Sorels (Dan Hartman)
Let’s visit some rock tunes associated with movies this week.
And let’s start with “I can Dream About You” from Streets of Fire, an entertaining ‘rock & roll fable’ directed by Walter Hill starring Diane Lane and Michael Pare who would go on to star in Eddie & the Cruisers, but we’ll get to that film later in the week.
“I Can Dream About You” was commissioned by the film's musical director Kenny Vance to be included in the movie. It was written and sung by Dan Hartman, a member of the Edgar Winter Group for whom he wrote and sang “Free Ride”. He also co-wrote “Living in America” a big hit for James Brown as well as “Love Sensation” the disco hit for Loleatta Halloway.
Now get out your pencil and paper because it's going to get confusing.
The song is sung in the movie by The Sorels but they don’t exist, except for the film. The lip synching Sorels are actually portrayed by dynamic ‘lead singer’ Stoney Jackson and his ‘backup singers’ Robert Townsend, Mykelti Williamson and Grand L. Bush, all of whom have tons of film/TV credits after Streets of Fire. So this is Dan Hartman singing his song right?
Nope.
Hartman only sang on the radio hit but according to music director Vance, the singer in the film version is Winston Ford, a record store clerk he found at Radio Shack, where all the great singers hang out. And just to add to the confusion, Hartman had originally written the song for his friends Hall & Oates who would record their own version of “I Can Dream About You” many years later.
Stay safe and well...and check out Streets of Fire, the movie is so bad, it’s good, and what exactly is a ‘moving sidewalk’?
