Songoftheday 8/30/13 - No more timing each tear that falls from my eyes, I'm not hiding the remedy to cure this old heart of mine...

Dan Hartman - "I Can Dream About You"
from the albums I Can Dream About You and Streets Of Fire (Original Soundtrack) (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 16

Today's Song of the Day is by the late singer/songwriter Dan Hartman, who came from Pennsylvania's capital city of Harrisburg to join the Edgar Winter Group, blues rockers led by the albino band namesake. Dan made the top-20 with them with "Free Ride", which he wrote and sung lead on.

After leaving the group in 1976, and after a couple of rock releases, Hartman took a left turn to disco, and in 1978 reached the top-40 on the US chart with "Instant Replay", which also topped the dance chart, and featured future Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent and Saturday Night Live bandleadre G.E. Smith. His follow-up album, Relight My Fire, produced one of the best all-time disco epics ever with the title track with Loleatta Holloway on vocals.

When the 80s dawned and disco waned, Dan tried to go more softer, but even though he had his first adult-contemporary hit with "All I Need" in 1981, its legacy wasn't as bright as his disco fare. Three years later, he released I Can Dream About You, named for the song he initially pitched to Daryl Hall & John Oates, but ended up recording himself. It was picked up for the movie Streets Of Fire, and it gave Dan his biggest solo pop success...

"I Can Dream About You" became Hartman's sole top-10 pop hit in August of 1984, while also reaching that level on the adult-contemporary (#7) and the dance play charts (#8) in Billboard. In England, it took a re-release a year later for it to catch on, eventually making it to #12, while going to #3 Down Under in Australia.

The song fit right in the wheelhouse for those who like their pop "pure" (a la Huey Lewis)...

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In the movie, his song is lipsynched by actors, and the original video didn't even feature the singer. It's also a "punchier" mix...

Here's Dan live on David Letterman's show...

...and not-so-live on Soul Train...

Hall & Oates did eventually end up covering the song in the 2000s...

Up tomorrow: Kilroy goes kill-joy.