My Top Ten Different Songs With the Same Title: Dreams (#5)

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One of the things I'm doing, thanks to numerous comments I've made or had made, is looking at some of my favorite songs that have the exact same title as other favorite songs. Today we have a trifecta of songs! #5: Dreams And I'm only doing three songs. There are a blue bazillion songs with the name "Dreams." These three run the gamut, from "cult band" song to number one hit from a Grammy-winning album. The best-known of the three "Dreams," of course, would be the 1977 #1 hit by Fleetwood Mac. The biggest hit from their autobiographical album Rumours (which detailed the soap opera-like breakup and romances in the band), "Dreams" was written by and sung by Stevie Nicks as a slap at her former boyfriend, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham: "Now here you go again, you say you want your freedom." (Of course, he got her back verbally in the song "Go Your Own way" with the line, "Packin' up, shackin' up's all you wanna do," a reference to the fact that she hooked up with a number of boyfriends, including Don Henley of the Eagles, after she and Buckingham split.). It's definitely one of the signature songs in the career of Fleetwood Mac. Next on the list, in chronological order, would be the 1986 single from the Sammy Hagar era of Van Halen. I know that there are two camps of Van Halen fans: people who like the David Lee Roth era, and people who like the Sammy Hagar era. Personally, I don't really care for either. This is the only Van Halen song I can say I really like. (I can tolerate "Jump" as long as I don't have to watch the video of Roth sticking his you-aren't-nearly-as-cute-as-you-think-you-are mug in every camera shot of other band members.) And I didn't really care for Sammy Hagar's solo work. But oh, this song really resonated with me. I suppose it has more than a little to do with the fact that the video for the song featured the Blue Angels, and there was a Blue Angels plane parked outside of my base in Jacksonville.... That may be why I paid attention, but I really do like this song standing on its own. Then there's "Dreams," the lead song (and first single [which obviously bombed] and video) from Outside Looking In, the second album by Milwaukee's BoDeans. This was one of their more successful albums due to the fact that they spent several tour dates promoting this album while opening for U2 on the wildly successful The Joshua Tree tour. The video got a little airplay, but most of the people who know this song are the longtime BoDeans fans. Three for the price of one! Dreams Fleetwood Mac song: Written by Stevie Nicks From Rumours, 1977 Van Halen song: Written by Sammy Hagar, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony From 5150, 1986 BoDeans song: Written by Kurt Neumann & Sam Llanas From Outside Looking In, 1987 Winner: Tough call, but I'm going with Van Halen. So sue me.