How Dan Hartman’s 'I Can Dream About You' Became an Accidental 80s Classic

Coming up, an underrated treasure of the 70s and 80s, Dan Hartman, who wrote and performed one of the most ear-candied, hook-laden classics of 1984: I Can Dream About You. This song might be the best-kept secret of that year. It’s the one song that takes me right back to the 80s more than about any song from the decade, a true sonic time machine. And interestingly Dan Hartman actually wrote it for one of the biggest acts of the decade, Daryl Hall and John Oates. But they had to turn it down because it missed the deadline for their new album. So Dan basically impersonated this group and recorded it the way he thought they would. And I tell you, I Can Dream About You was so spot on to that to this day many people mistake it for Hall and Oates. It ended up being the main song for a film that flopped in its theatrical run but has become a cult classic. Stay tuned for the story of a classic on Professor of Rock.

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