Songs Rhino loves, #105: Debbie Gibson - “Only In My Dreams”

As good a sugar-rush pop song as has ever been made.

Debbie Gibson wrote this song at age 14 in 1984 and recorded it in 1986; she was still a tiny youth of 17 when it was released, and I gather it was a huge hit at the time, reaching #4 on the Billboard pop charts. It’s rare that I appreciate the pop music of the 1980s; for the most part, I’m avidly interested in the pop, R&B, soul, funk, folk, reggae, and country music of the 1960s and early 1970s, but aside from Paul Simon’s Graceland (a top five favourite album of mine across genres!) and a few key hits by longtime favourites such as The Meters, Bill Withers, Rakim, and Big Daddy Kane, very little music I truly love was made between 1976 and 1990. This is one of the great exceptions – I think it’s beautifully written and immaculately performed, and I even like the production, whereas it’s frequently the case that I find 1980s pop production unpalatably chintzy. I’ve also always found it moving how sensible and mature I think the perspective Gibson is expressing in the lyrics is. This song is beautiful! It gets my unreserved recommendation!