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"Dreamlover" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter and record producer Mariah Carey, released on July 27, 1993, as the lead single from her third studio album "Music Box" (1993).
It's lyrics were written by Carey, with music composed by Carey and Dave Hall, and was produced by Carey, Walter Afanasieff and Hall. The song incorporates a sample of the hook from "Blind Alley" by the Emotions—previously used in "Ain't No Half-Steppin'" (1988) by Big Daddy Kane—into its melody and instrumentation. "Dreamlover" marked a more pronounced attempt on Carey's part to incorporate hip hop into her music, as was seen in her decision to work with Hall, who had previously produced What's the 411? (1992) by Mary J Blige. This was partly in light of the mixed reception to her previous studio effort "Emotions" (1991), which featured gospel and 1960s soul influences.
Lyrically, the song pictures a protagonist calling for a perfect lover, her "dreamlover," to whisk her away into the night and not "disillusion" her like others in the past.
"Dreamlover" received positive reviews from contemporary music critics, many of whom praised the song's incorporated sample, as well as Carey's carefree vocal style. The song was the first of several of her lead singles that sampled older tunes as a musical bed, as seen in "Fantasy" (1995), "Honey" (1997), "Heartbreaker" (1999), and "Loverboy" (2001).
It was a global success, becoming Carey's seventh chart topper on the US Billboard Hot 100, remaining there for eight weeks. It peaked at number one in Canada and Panama, and became a top-ten hit in Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
In an interview with Fred Bronson, Mariah Carey described the recording process:
"I wanted to do something that had a happy feeling, something that was more open and released, and that’s really not Dave. It’s very anti what he’s about. So he said, ‘Oh, you want to do that happy stuff? All right, all right.’ He was not into doing it. Then we started listening to a lot of different and old loops and we used the ‘Blind Alley’ loop and I started singing the melody over it."
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