In 1984, the action film Streets of Fire was released. It is a film from the 80s, but if you watch it, you will also see a lot of influences from the rock 'n roll era in it, given the clothes and hairstyles reminiscent of the rockabilly music style. The film is about a motorbike gang that kidnaps a singer. The singer's ex gets a call from his sister and learns that his ex has been kidnapped. He decides to go and free her. An action film with also some romantic highlights that complete the film. The film also contains beautiful music, including three songs by Ry Cooder. In a future blog, I will elaborate on the film music of the overall film. Today, I have chosen one of the songs from the film that became a hit in the 1980s, namely I Can Dream About You. The song can still be heard on the radio today.

The song I Can Dream About You was written and sung by Daniel ( call sign Dan ) Earl Hartman. This American singer , musician,was also a songwriter as well as a record producer and also wrote songs for more famous artists, such as Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Tyler, Black Box, Dusty Springfield, James Brown. The song I Can Dream About You became his biggest hit, finishing at spot 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song was used for the film Streets of Fire. In the film, you can hear the song during a clip where the group The Sorels are performing. This is a made-up musical group and the lead singer of the group who playsback the song is the actor Stoney Jackson. Surprisingly, we do not hear Dan Hartman in this film excerpt but soul and gospel singer Winston Ford.

For the album and single, Dan Hartman's voice was recorded and released though. In the music video, therefore, we see and hear Dan Hartman, both in the film and the music video later Dan Hartman claimed his voice should be heard on all video clips. Sources say Winston Ford's vocal version is no longer to be found. Dan Hartman is said to have changed the sung-in voice to his own.Consequently, opinions are divided. Some say Dan stole it from Winston Ford, but that is incorrect, as Dan Hartman wrote, produced and released the song on the album and single. On the other hand, the question always remains why was the sung-in voice removed and he added his own?

Both men have sadly since passed away and both leave behind beautiful music. I will elaborate on their works and biographies in other blogs.
Dan Hartman later dedicated the song to Daryl Hall and John Oats who did not take the song directly, as Dan actually intended, but they made it their own version. You can listen to this one below too.

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