Dream Baby Dream Explained

"Dream Baby Dream" is a song by the electro-punk band Suicide, written by its members Martin Rev and Alan Vega. It was released as a single in 1979 by Island Records. It has been covered by Neneh Cherry and The Thing on the 2011-recorded album The Cherry Thing and by Bruce Springsteen both live and in a studio version released on High Hopes (2014). Springsteen released a live version as an EP which was a part of the Alan Vega 70th Birthday Limited Edition EP Series in 2008. Also part of the EP series was a live version of "Dream Baby Dream" performed by Suicide on NBC's The Midnight Special in 1978.

The song appeared in Adam Curtis' 2016 BBC documentary HyperNormalisation during a montage featuring skyscrapers being blown up.^[1]

The song features on the closing credits of Alex Garland's Civil War (2024).

A live cover version of the song by the band Savages also appears in the 2014 film Electric Slide.

Accolades

Year	Publication	Country	Accolade	Rank
1985	Sounds	United Kingdom	The 100 Best Singles of All Time[2]	76
2001	Uncut		The 100 Greatest Singles from the Post-Punk Era[3]	42
2003	Q		The 1001 Best Songs Ever[4]	901
2008	Pitchfork	United States	The Pitchfork 500: 1977–1979[5]
2016			The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s[6]	37

(*) designates unordered lists.

Formats and track listing

All songs written by Martin Rev and Alan Vega

UK 7" single (WIP 6543)

1. "Dream Baby Dream" – 6:19
2. "Radiation" – 3:03

Personnel

Adapted from the Dream Baby Dream liner notes.^[7]

Suicide

• Martin Rev – keyboards
• Alan Vega – vocals

Production and additional personnel

• Ric Ocasek – production
• Jay Burnett – engineering

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United Kingdom	1979	Island	LP	WIP 6543
France	1981	Celluloid, ZE		CEL 6590

Notes and References

1. Web site: Suicide's Dream Baby Dream – the unlikely anthem of 2016. Pollard. Alexandra. 2016-10-30. the Guardian. en. 2018-06-25.
2. Web site: Sounds All Time Top 100 Singles . September 18, 2015 . Sounds.
3. Web site: Uncut – The 100 Greatest Singles Of The Post-Punk Era . September 18, 2015 . Uncut.
4. Web site: Q Special Edition – 1001 Best Songs Ever . September 18, 2015 . Q.
5. Web site: Guide to the Greatest Songs From Punk to the Present . https://web.archive.org/web/20151207160105/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/steveparker/Pitchfork.htm . 2015-12-07 . September 18, 2015 . Pitchfork.
6. Web site: The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s – Page 9. . 22 August 2016 .
7. Dream Baby Dream . . 1979 . sleeve . . London, United Kingdom.