“I Got Dreams”
Steve Wariner
Written by Bill LaBounte and Steve Wariner
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
October 7, 1989
Steve Wariner’s final No. 1 single for MCA – and his final No. 1 single of the eighties – proved prescient.
“I Got Dreams” isn’t one of his best chart-toppers for MCA, but it’s the one that most clearly lays out his path forward. It showcases his musicianship more than any single to date, with an instrumental breakdown that previews the Grammy-winning picking he’d be doing in the nineties.
The songwriting is the weak link here, and listening to it in retrospect, I can’t help but hear a bit of frustration from Wariner. He’d been a steady radio presence for most of the decade. He’d never get this much radio play in the nineties. Yet even his hits collections weren’t selling gold, as gold and platinum acts were becoming the norm.
It’s his guitar work and his stubborn resilience that resonate the most on “I Got Dreams.” It’s not as satisfying to listen to as his upcoming hits for Arista, but it set the stage for that era. We know now that he not only had dreams back in 1989, but that he fully realized them by the turn of the century, setting the stage for his inevitable – and overdue – induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Wariner is featured in our nineties retrospective, starting with his cover of “The Tips of My Fingers.”
“I Got Dreams” gets a B.
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Another Steve Wariner song I put in the “pleasant but unremarkable” basket. As you said, the songwriting is deeply forgettable and unworthy of a chart topper. The sound plods along at points, but Wariner does hit the right note to give it a hint of a spark in the choruses. Far and away the high point of the record was the sizzling guitar work in the bridge, however. I’d have enjoyed a few more flourishes like that in the rest of the production. It would definitely have put the song up on its feet a little better.
Grade: B-