User:Jack Sebastian/Dream Weaver (song)

"Dream Weaver" is the title song from the 1975 album The Dream Weaver by Gary Wright. Released as a single a year after the album, it quickly became a hit single in the United States, reaching #2 in the Billboard Hot 100, In Canada, Europe and Australia it achieved the Number One spot in the Cash Box charts for 1976.

According to Gary Wright, the song was inspired by literature on Hinduism and India, given to him by George Harrison. In interviews, Wright claimed that the album was the first-ever all-synthesiser/keyboard album; the first all-synthesizer album was in fact Switched-On Bach a synthesized version of classical music by Wendy Carlos, in 1968. However, both the album and the title song were indeed the first ll-synthesiser/keyboard rock album.

The song's trademark opening sequence resurfaced as the inspiration for Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street, and again in 1990, when it was initially sampled in a short film appearing in the 1990 Wayne's World episode of Saturday Night Live. Wright later re-recorded a longer version of "Dream Weaver" for the soundtrack of the feature-length 1992 film, Wayne's World soundtrack.

Use in visual media
Portions of Dream Weaver was first sampled in a short film appearing in the 1990 Wayne's World episode of Saturday Night Live, in which guest star Wayne Gretzky appears, and Wayne is picturing that song playing as he imagines himself defeating Gretzky in street hockey and then winning his wife, Janet Jones. The same song would later be re-used in the soundtrack of the 1992 film Wayne's World.

Since then, a similar form of sampling of the song has been used to note the meeting between, or the longing of one character for another, as indicated in the 2003 movie, Daddy Day Care, as well as in the film trailer the upcoming Pixar film Toy Story 3 when Ken first meets Barbie.

This song, specifically its trademark synthesizer keyboard introduction appear in the soundtrack for A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film written and directed by Wes Craven. Craven notes in the video commentary for the DVD release of the film that Dream Weaver "sealed" the story, providing him an artistic starting point for the film as well as the synthesizer riff.

The song has also appeared in the film, The People vs. Larry Flynt

Use by other musical artists
"Dream Weaver" and "Love is Alive" are sampled in "Wordz of Wisdom", a single from 3rd Bass's 1989's The Cactus Album.

In 1999, it was covered by dance artist Erin Hamilton for her album One World. It was also featured prominently in the boy/boy love story film Trick also released in 1999.

In 2000, Crowbar recorded a doom metal version of "Dream Weaver" for their album Equilibrium.

Personnel
It features Wright on vocals and keyboards, and Jim Keltner on drums.