Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ Returns to Chart Thanks to Viral Tweet
More than 40 years after it topped Billboard's Hot 100, "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac has become a hit again. The song from their 1977 landmark album Rumours has reached No. 16 on the Hot Rock Songs chart thanks to a viral tweet.
According to Billboard, it started on March 22, when a user called @bottlefleet tweeted "'Fleetwood Mac’s music is so boring, you can’t even dance to it.' Me, an intellectual:" The user included a video of the Golden Girls dance line of Alcorn State University, a historically black school in Lorman, Miss., with "Dreams" playing over it. Since then, the tweet has earned more than 310,000 likes and more than 130,000 retweets.
The tweet's success is believed to be responsible for huge spikes in digital download sales (2,000 copies sold, a 36 percent increase) and on-demand streaming (1.9 million plays, up 24 percent) of "Dreams." Its streaming totals also translated into 7,000 "equivalent album units" -- a jump of 12 percent -- which helped Rumours go from No. 21 to No. 13 on the Top Rock Albums chart.
Last year, another track from Rumours, "The Chain," got a similar boost when it was included on the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 soundtrack and used in the Super Bowl ad that promoted the film. The song, the only track credited to all five members of Fleetwood Mac's classic lineup, jumped to No. 7 at Hot Rock Songs last May.
Written by Stevie Nicks, "Dreams" is the only Fleetwood Mac song to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100. It reached the milestone the week of June 18, 1977.