"Dreams" was written by Stevie Nicks for Fleetwood Mac’s eleventh studio album, Rumors (1977).

In the United States, "Dreams" was released as the second single from Rumors in March 1977, while in the United Kingdom, the song was released as the third single in June 1977. In the US, "Dreams" sold more than one million copies and reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, the band's only number-one single.

During the sessions for Rumors, everyone in the band was going through a breakup (Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham with each other, John and Christine McVie were ending their eight-year relationship and Mick Fleetwood with his wife Jenny Boyd). 

Although they were able to work together, most of the songwriting was on an individual basis. We had to go through this elaborate exercise of denial," explained Buckingham to Blender magazine, "keeping our personal feelings in one corner of the room while trying to be professional in the other."

Stevie Nicks wrote the song in early 1976 at Record Plant studio in Sausalito, California. "One day when I wasn't required in the main studio," remembers Nicks to Blender magazine, "I took a Fender Rhodes piano and went into another studio that was said to belong to Sly Stone, of Sly and the Family Stone. It was a black-and-red room, with a sunken pit in the middle where there was a piano, and a big black-velvet bed with Victorian drapes."

"I sat down on the bed with my keyboard in front of me," continues Nicks. "I found a drum pattern, switched my little cassette player on and wrote 'Dreams' in about 10 minutes. Right away I liked the fact that I was doing something with a dance beat, because that made it a little unusual for me."

When Nicks played the song to the rest of the group, "They weren't nuts about it. But I said 'Please! Please record this song, at least try it.' Because the way I play things sometimes... you really have to listen." The band recorded it the following day. Only a basic track was recorded at Sausalito, with Nicks playing the Rhodes piano and singing. Recording assistant Cris Morris remembers how "all (they) kept was the drum track and live vocal from Stevie – the guitars and bass were added later in Los Angeles." 

One line from the song, "Players only love you when they're playing," was directed at Lindsey Buckingham. Nicks said that she was not pleased when he brought "Go Your Own Way" to the sessions, which was clearly about her.

Various Sources