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With research and much assistance by Kym Chaffin

"The best songs are the ones that come to you in the middle of the night and you have to get up and write them down, so you can go back to sleep." – John Lennon

From the Rolling Stones, to Johnny Cash to R.E.M., some of the greatest and most enduring rock and roll songs in history have sprung from the dreaming. So the next time you wake up humming that tune or speaking those lyrics, you too might want to grab a pen, or recorder and sing your dream song into this world. Below are just a few examples that came directly from a dream:

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (Out of Our Heads 1965)– Keith Richards/Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones. Listed as the second greatest rock and roll song ever written, this enduring tune came to Richards in a dream in May 1965 in Clearwater, Florida when he woke up, grabbed a guitar and taped the music racing through his head on a nearby cassette recorder. He played the notes once and then fell back asleep. “On the tape,” he said later, “you can hear me drop the pick and the rest of the tape is snoring.” Source: Rolling Stone magazine December 9, 2004.

“In Dreams” – Roy Orbison.  Like Richards, Orbison wrote this one down as soon as he woke up. It stayed on the Top Ten for 13 weeks in the U.S., but was a much bigger hit in the U.K. where it stayed on the charts for months. The track made him so popular that they paired him with an up-and-coming group called The Beatles. Source: Rolling Stone Dec. 9, 2004

 “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)” – Train (Drops of Jupiter 2001). When lead singer Pat Monahan woke up, he had the song in his head and recorded a demo of it. “Pat had a dream and brought us some really rough lyrics and we built the music around that,” said band member Rob Hotchkiss. The song won Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Instrumental Arrangement with Accompanying Vocalist. Source: www. songfacts.com, Interview with Rob Hotchkiss on www.gibson.com.

 “Ring of Fire” – Johnny Cash. Johnny heard a recording by June’s sister and had a dream that he was singing the song with mariachi horns. He recorded it that way and it became one of his biggest hits. His marriage to June four years later helped save his life. Source: Rolling Stone Dec 9, 2004.

 “The Man Comes Around” - Johnny Cash (CASH). Cash was apparently a big dreamer. As he writes, "The initial idea for the song came from a dream . I was in Nottingham, England and had bought a book called "Dreaming of the Queen." The book talked about the great number of people in that country who dream that they are with Queen Elizabeth II.  I dreamed that I walked into Buckingham Palace, and there she sat, knitting or sewing…Another woman sat beside her. As I approached, the queen looked up at me and said, "Johnny Cash!  You're like a thorn tree in a whirlwind."  Then of course, I awoke.  I realized that "Thorn tree in a whirlwind" sounded familiar to me. Eventually I decided that it was biblical, and I found it in the book of Job.  From there it grew into a song, and I started lifting things from the book of Revelation.  It became "The Man Comes Around." Source: Liner Notes by Johnny Cash from the album CASH.

"Little Martha" – Allman Brothers Band (Eat a Peach 1972). Duane Allman’s dream had Jimi Hendrix playing this instrumental tune for him in a hotel room. It is the recorded music that is played at the end of every ABB concert when the crowd exits. Source: www.songfacts.com

 “Yesterday” – Paul McCartney (Help! 1965).  McCartney jumped out of bed and worked out the melody and chords on the piano for this tune. He called it "Scrambled Eggs"  and went around for weeks working it out until eventually it became, "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away." A good lesson that even when the dreaming gives us gifts, we may still have to work it out in this reality.  Source: “Many Years From Now,” Paul McCartney.

 His other universally appreciated tune "Let it Be" wasn't written in a dream.  Rather it was based on a dream-visit from his dead mother, Mary McCartney.  He was run-down from drug use and the Beatles were beginning to break up.   He went to bed in a stressed state and dreamed his mother came to him and said, "It's alright.  It'll be all right."  When he woke up he started with the words, "Mother Mary come to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be." 

 "Purple Haze” - Jimi Hendrix (Smash Hits, 1967). Hendrix was inspired by a harrowing dream of walking under the sea. In the dream, he got lost in a purple haze that surrounded and engulfed him but in the dream his faith in Jesus saved him. In fact the song was originally titled, “Purple Haze, Jesus Saves.” Source: www.songfacts.com, Rolling Stone Dec 9, 2004.

 "Across the Night" – Silverchair (Diorama 2002). The lyrics are based on the dreams of lead singer Daniel Johns. One of the lyrics states, "I  fell in love with people sleeping and hugged a man's arthritic shoulder." Soon after completing the album he contracted reactive arthritis. His dream was not only inspirational, but you might say precognitive as well. Source: In Music We Trust magazine interview, www.songfacts.com

"Here Comes the Flood” – Peter Gabriel (Peter Gabriel  1977). Gabriel was inspired by his dream in which people see each other's thoughts, producing a psychic flood. "I was referring to a mental flood... a release, a wash over the mind," he said. Source: www.songfacts.com, Peter Gabriel.

"It’s The End of the World As We Know it (And I feel fine)" – R.E.M (Document 1987). Lead singer Michael Stipe dreamt he was at a birthday party and everyone had the initials L.B. except him. This is evident in the lyrics when he talks about Lester Bangs, Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce, and Leonard Bernstein. Source: www.songfacts.com

 “This Could Be the Start of  Something Big" - Steve Allen. Originally written for the 1954 TV production, “The Bachelor,” it was described by Allen as “the most commercially successful song” he ever wrote (and he wrote more than 4000!). "I awakened from my sleep having just dreamed the catchy melody and four or five lines of lyrics...I went to the piano and played the tune. The basic idea of it was all there in my dream, and when I awoke I just wrote it down and finished it off." Source: National Enquirer interview November 12, 1985.