About Dreams

"Dreams" is the debut single by Irish rock band the Cranberries. It was released in 1992 and later appeared on the band's debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (1993). The song reached the top 40 on the US Hot 100 Airplay and the top 30 of the UK Singles Chart in early 1994. A 1990 demo version was released in Ireland only in the summer of that year under their initial band name, the Cranberry Saw Us. At the end of the song, the backing vocals are sung by Mike Mahoney, ex-boyfriend of Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan. In 2017, the song was released as an acoustic, stripped down version on the band's Something Else album.

According to lead singer Dolores O'Riordan, "Dreams" was written for an early love; she explained, "I wrote that about my first love when I was living in Ireland ... It's about feeling really in love for the first time".[5] The song was later released on a demo tape with "Linger" that helped generate excitement for the band. In an interview for New Musical Express, guitarist Noel Hogan said of the song: "It's only really since Dolores passed away that I've grown a proper appreciation for songs like 'Linger' and 'Dreams'. They were just songs in the set list for us; everybody else was losing their mind about them. And when I listen to them now I realise how great they are for someone so young, which I never, ever appreciated until a year ago. We must have played it a gazillion times in our lives and it just becomes a part of the set, but it’s different now. We’re so lucky to have left that behind, to have that legacy".