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Lindsey Buckingham said Fleetwood Mac‘s “Dreams” is about a member of the band. One of Marvin Gaye’s songs knocked it from the top of the chart. Subsequently, Gaye’s producer said you can hear Gaye hit a bottle of juice on the song.

Marvin Gaye looking at the camera
Marvin Gaye | Afro Newspaper/Gado / Contributor

Lindsey Buckingham said Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ reminds him of Stevie Nicks more than any of the group’s other songs

During a 2021 interview with Vulture, Lindsey Buckingham said “Dreams” was the Fleetwood Mac song that reminded him the most of Stevie Nicks. “Obviously it was written about me,” he said. “So there is that. [Laughs.] 

“We were all writing about each other on Rumours, but that song also represents a sort of a quintessential marriage of what Stevie brought to the table and what I brought to the table for her,” he continued. 

Marvin Gaye was ambivalent about his song that replaced Fleetwood Mac’s hit from the top spot

According to The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits, “Dreams’ was knocked off the top spot by Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” In the 1991 book Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, producer Art Stewart discussed the tune’s origin. “He had this riff that seemed very danceable,” he said. “He was doing crazy things like banging on a half-filled grapefruit juice bottle for rhythm. Well, I kept stuff like that on the track. 

“Also people talking in the studio — that loose feeling,” he added. “At one point, Don Cornelius from Soul Train comes in and Marvin shouts out, ‘Say, Don.’ I left that in. Marvin wasn’t sure of what I was doing, but he left me alone to piece the song together. 

“On Christmas Day, 1976, after working on it for months, I ran it over to his house in Hidden Hills,” he continued. “He liked it but still wasn’t sure — a typical Marvin reaction. Soon everyone was liking it.”

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Stevie Nicks Didn’t Tell Lindsey Buckingham Who Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Landslide’ Was About Until Years Later

How ‘Dreams’ and ‘Got to Give It Up’ performed on the pop charts in the United States

“Dreams” became Fleetwood Mac’s only No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. It spent a week at the top and a total of 23 weeks on the chart. The tune appeared on the album Rumors, which topped the Billboard 200 for 31 weeks. The album lasted on the chart for a whopping 502 weeks altogether.

“Got to Give It Up” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a week and lasted on the chart for 18 weeks. Gaye included the hit on his album Live at the London Palladium. The album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Live at the London Palladium remained on the chart for 26 weeks.

“Dreams” and “Got to Give It Up” are both classic songs even if the charts pitted them against each other.

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