Nancy Wilson of Heart in concert
From Paul Raffa on Fb, 11/20/20: Wow fun facts about Heart. I never knew this. These Dreams- Heart – This song was written by Martin Page and Bernie Taupin, who intended it for Stevie Nicks. When it was offered to her, however, she wasn’t interested. She saw it as thematically too similar to one of her signature songs, “Dreams”, with Fleetwood Mack.
Then it was offered to Heart. Nancy Wilson loved it and, though the rest of the band liked it, they wanted to pass on it. Her sister, Ann, the band’s lead singer, pointed out that they already had a full set of songs for their next album, which was going to be their first with their new label, and couldn’t squeeze in another.
Nancy, still in love with this piece, continued to pitch it hard. Ann finally relented, but she said (paraphrasing), “This is your deal, so you’re going to be the one singing lead on it.” Nancy had never before sung lead.
So they recorded it, with Nancy doing lead vocals for the first time and Ann singing backup, and released it on their eponymous album, Heart, in 1986. They did not, however, release it as one of the initial pair of singles. They chose instead “What About Love” and “Never”. This seemed at first a great pair of choices, as both songs quickly landed in the top ten on the charts. With two immediate hit singles, it was time to release another, so they picked “These Dreams”.
It became Heart’s first ever #1 song on the Billboard 100 and is still the only one of their songs to ever hit #1 on the US adult contemporary chart!