You Make My Dreams

Hall, Oates and Sara Allen wrote it, and the duo produced it for RCA with "Gotta Lotta Nerve (Perfect Perfect)" on the B-side. Hall sings lead and plays keyboards, Oates plays electric guitar, John Siegler bass and Jerry Marotta drums. Oates says it came from a dressing-room jam with a guitarist friend playing Texas swing against his Delta blues, and the title phrase came to him in the jam. Hall says the opening piano riff came from a rare Yamaha CP-30 that was destroyed and that he searched for a replacement, though a gear forum doubts it is a CP-30. American Songwriter calls it mostly Hall's baby, says Hall initially thought the refrain too trite but kept it, and notes the vocal arrangement with entrances at unpredictable moments.

It reached 5 on the Hot 100, 7 on Cash Box and 4 on Radio and Records, but did not chart in the UK as a single (Official Charts calls it a first single from Voices, which conflicts with Wikipedia's fourth). It is triple platinum in the UK, with over 1.8 million sold as of June 2024, and reached one billion streams worldwide in autumn 2020; Oates called it a killer groove combined with feel-good lyrics that has stood the test of time. It is in (500) Days of Summer, where Oates names its street-dance scene as his favorite use, The Wedding Singer and Despicable Me 2, and was the Toronto Maple Leafs' goal song from 2018 to 2023. Setlist.fm shows 99 plays on Hall's page, which may mix duo and solo shows.