About The Song

Roy Orbison’s song “In Dreams” is a rock ballad that was released as a single on Monument Records in February 1963. The song is about lost love and has a unique through-composed structure in seven movements in which Orbison sings through two octaves, beyond the range of most rock singers. The song has a climax represented by a raw, emotionally vulnerable confession sung in an “eerily high falsetto”.

The song peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 charts at number 7, and charted in the United Kingdom for five months while Orbison toured with the Beatles. It gained notability again in 1987 when Orbison released a re-recorded anthology of his greatest hits; the year prior director David Lynch had used the song provocatively in his film Blue Velvet, helping to revive interest in Orbison’s music.