From their top-selling album Rumours, “Dreams” was Fleetwood Mac’s only No. 1 hit in the US back in 1977.

The song was written by Stevie Nicks at a turbulent time for the band. She and Lindsey Buckingham’s relationship was coming to an end. Christine McVie was in the process of divorcing her husband, band member John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood was in the process of divorce from his wife as well.

Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way” can be considered a companion piece to “Dreams” as it details the other side of the breakup from his perspective.

Audio engineer Ken Caillat recalls the origin of the song,

Most of the material for the album was composed in the studio but Stevie used to get bored, sitting around while all the technical stuff was going on, so she asked if there was a room with a piano to noodle around on.

Well, the Record Plant told her she could use Sly Stone’s studio — a little sunken room that they’d built for him to work in — and one day while we were working on some track, she came in and said, ‘I’ve just written the most amazing song.’ ‘Really? Let’s hear it.’

So, she walked over to the Rhodes — which, like everything else, was always mic’d up and ready to go — and she played ‘Dreams’. Everyone else joined in, she did a guide vocal, and that was the keeper. It’s the only time that ever happened. She tried to redo the vocal again and again, but she could never beat the original. I actually wanted her to beat it, because it had the drums leaking into her vocal mic and, in a couple of spots where she sang softly, I had to ride it up and you could hear even more of the snare. Still, it was a one-off.