You Make My Dreams

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 and he started playing a Texas swing, 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 CP-30 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 CP-30. There were very few of them made and it wasn't out for very long. Over the years mine got destroyed [and] I cannot duplicate that sound other than with the actual instrument. So I had to search and search until, quite recently, I found one.”

Reception

Record World praised the song's "vocal and musical inspiration."

In popular culture

• The song features in the 2009 film (500) Days of Summer, where Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character breaks out into a spontaneous dance number while walking down the street. Daryl Hall and John Oates themselves were originally going to be included in this scene.
• The National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs used the song as their goal song from the 2018–19 season until the end of the 2022–23 season.

Personnel

• Daryl Hall – lead and backing vocals, keyboards
• John Oates – electric guitar, backing vocals
• John Siegler – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Jerry Marotta – drums

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

References

1. "You Make My Dreams by Daryl Hall & John Oates - Track Info | AllMusic".
2. Billboard Staff. (October 19, 2023). "The 500 Best Pop Songs: Staff List".
3. [{{AllMusic
4. Donahue, Ann. (November 3, 2010). "Hall & Oates Embrace Their Hipster Faithful".
5. MacIntosh, Dan. (April 7, 2011). "John Oates : Songwriter Interviews".
6. (June 10, 2021). "Hall And Oates: How You Make My Dreams became a streaming colossus".
7. (May 2, 1981). "Hits of the Week".
8. Mary Sollosi. "Here's how the '(500) Days of Summer' Hall & Oates dance sequence came together".
9. (October 5, 2018). "Auston Matthews among fans of Leafs new Hall & Oates goal song". [[Sportsnet]].
10. "CASH BOX Top 100 Singles – Week ending July 18, 1981".
11. "Hall + Oates".
12. "You make my dreams come true".
13. "Top 100 Hits of 1981/Top 100 Songs of 1981".
14. (December 26, 1981). "Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles".