All I Have to Do Is Dream

Album: Greatest Hits (1958)
Charted: 1 1
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Songfacts®:

  • This song, which sold over a million copies, was written by Boudleaux Bryant, who was half of the world famous husband-and-wife songwriting team, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. Together, this talented couple penned many huge hits for the Everly Brothers and other artists, including "Bye, Bye Love," "Wake Up Little Susie," "Bird Dog," "Devoted to You," "Hey Joe," "Love Hurts," "Raining In My Heart," and "Rocky Top."
  • Phil Everly (from everlybrothers.com): "I remember hearing 'All I Have To Do Is Dream' on an acetate with Boudleaux's version on it, and I said, at the time, they could have put Boudleaux's out and it would have been a hit. It's just a great, great song. It's beautiful. Boudleaux was the main man who wrote all the great songs for us, and we love him."
  • Chet Atkins played tremolo-style guitar chords on the song, providing an interesting musical backing to the Everly Brothers' unique vocal harmonies.
  • Boudleaux Bryant said regarding the phrase "Only trouble is, gee whiz": "I can't explain why I put that in there. It was just a lucky rhyme fall."
  • The song reached the US charts in four straight decades:
    The Everly Brothers took it to #1 in 1958.
    Richard Chamberlain's version went to #4 in 1963.
    Glen Campbell and Bobby Gentry reached #27 with it in 1970 and The Nitty Gritty Band landed at #66 in 1975.
    Andy Gibb and Victoria Principal peaked at #51 in 1981.
  • According to Billboard magazine, the song took just 15 minutes to write.
  • Boudleaux was literally the man of Felice's dreams. When she first met him, Boudleaux was playing a gig with his jazz band at the Sherwood Hotel in Milwaukee, where Felice was working as an elevator operator. But she saw him years earlier - in a dream when she was 8 years old. She told Country Music People in 1981: "When I was eight years old, I dreamt of this man. He and I were dancing to 'our song,' and I remembered this man's face. So when I saw Boudleaux I recognized him! I don't know if you can call it love at first sight or 'My god, you friend, I was wondering when you'd come along.' But I just clung on to him. He didn't know who the hell I was, but somehow I knew who he was."

Comments: 15

  • Bruce from Hudson Valley NyIn 1985 on the occasion of our 10th anniversary we were lucky enough to see Phil and Don at Harrahs in Lake Tahoe. As I recall it was a smaller casino main room. We were lucky enough to sit in a banquet just right of center. The banter was fantastic and the music was awesome. One of the better shows we’ve seen. Phil seemed to have something funny to say before every song.
  • Lily from Diuba CaliforiaOne of the best greatest songs still lives in my heart from my childhood growing up was My parents song . It's forever the greatest.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn this day in 1981 {September 22nd} Andy Gibb and Victoria Principal were guests on the CBS-TV weekday-afternoon television program, 'The Merv Griffin Show'...
    At the time the duo's covered version of "All I Have To Do Is Dream"* was at position #67 on Billboard's Top 100 chart, two weeks earlier it had peaked at #51 {for 2 weeks} and it spent eight weeks on the Top 100...
    It was the duo's only Top 100 record...
    Between 1977 and 1981 Andy Gibb had nine records on the Top 100 chart, six made the Top 10 with three reaching #1, "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" for 4 weeks in 1977, "(Love Is) Thinker Than Water" for 2 weeks in 1978}, and "Shadow Dancing" for 7 weeks in 1977...
    His three other Top 10 records were "An Everlasting Love" {#5 in 1978}, "(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away" {#9 in 1978}, and "Desire" {#4 in 1980}...
    Andrew Roy Gibb passed away at the young age of 30 on March 30th, 1988...
    May he R.I.P.
    * Five other versions of "All I Have To Do Is Dream" have charted, the original version by the Everly Brothers peaked at #1 (for 5 weeks} in 1958, Richard Chamberlain's version reached #14 {for 1 week} in 1963, the duo of Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry peaked at #27 {for 1 week} in 1969, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band reached #66 {for 1 week} in 1975, and on the United Kingdom's Singles chart, Cliff Richard, with Phil Everly, took his covered version to #14 {for 2 weeks} in 1994...
  • Jennifur Sun from RamonaWondered who played that pretty guitar part. Didn't Chet play on a lot of their tunes? Also did their dad ever play on any of them?
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn January 14th 1977, Victoria Principal appeared in the made-for TV movie 'Fantasy Island' on the ABC-TV network...
    One year later on January 20th, 1978 the first episode of 'Fantasy Island' was aired, the one-hour weekly series ran for seven seasons with a total of 152 episodes...
    And on August 9th, 1981 the duo of Victoria Principal and 'then boyfriend' Andy Gibb entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 at position #81 with a covered version of "All I Have to Do Is Dream"; a little under one month later on September 6th it would peak at #51 {for 2 weeks} and stayed on the chart for 8 weeks...
    Andrew Roy Gibb passed away on March 10th, 1988 at the young age of 30...
    May he R.I.P.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn April 27th 1958, the Everly Brothers performed "All I Have To Do Is Dream" on the CBS-TV program 'The Ed Sullivan Show'...
    And on the very day of this 'Sullivan' show appearance the song peaked at #1 (for 4 weeks) on Billboard's Best Sellers chart; it had entered the chart on April 15th, 1958 and stayed on the Top 100 for 17 weeks...
    It also reached #1 on Billboard's Country chart (for 2 weeks), Billboard's R&B chart (for 1 week), Canada (for 5 weeks), and the United Kingdom (for 7 weeks)...
    The record's B-side, a covered version of Roy Orbison's "Claudette", also charted, it reached #30 on the Top 100.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyR.I.P. Mr. EVERLY...
    Phil Everly passed away January 3rd, 2014 in Burbank, CA at the age of 74.
    Between 1957 and 1984 the brothers had thirty-eight records on Billboard's Top 100 Singles chart; with fifteen making the Top 10 and three reaching #1 ("Wake Up Little Susie" for 4 weeks in 1957, "All I Have to Do Is Dream" for 5 weeks in 1958, "Cathy's Clown" for 5 weeks in 1960)...
    In addition they also had three records peak at #2 ("Bye Bye Love", "Bird Dog", and "Problems")...
    Brother Don will celebrate his 77th birthday next month on February 1st.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyIn 1963 Richard Chamberlain covered this song and it peaked at No. 14 and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band reached No. 66 in 1975!!!
  • Steve Dotstar from Los Angeles, CaI agree that the tremelo electric guitar sound of Chet Atkins and the piano-bass backing is a definite sound of the Everlys that I loved..
    another great one is "Till I Kissed Ya" Hi Don!
  • Mike from Santa Barbara, CaThis song was also covered in 1981 by Andy Gibb and Victoria Principle, who were romantically involved at the time.
  • Nunzio from Darwin, AustraliaCheck out the version by Jeff Bridges & Karen Allen
    in STARMAN. They did a proper version for the soundtrack album.
  • Richard from Talladega, AlR.E.M. did a great cover of this in the film "Athens, Georgia Inside/Out" in 1987.
  • Jasmine from Vancouver, Wacovered on tour by Jack's mannequin
  • Matthewz from Corpus Christi, Txanother cleverly veiled sexually charged 50's rock and roll song, which clearly references sexual phantasizing. something that's almost impossible to to stop for ten minutes when you're a teenager.
  • Teresa from Mechelen, BelgiumI love this song, I also like the version of Glen Campbell singing with Babby Gentry. The songs of The Everly Brothers are so beautiful, it's always a joy to hear them again.
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