From ABBA to Westlife – I Have a Dream Continues Its Success

Originally released in December 1979, ‘I Have a Dream’ became a worldwide hit at the end of that decade for ABBA. 20 years later, Westlife repeated worldwide success with a new version produced by Pete Waterman and Dan Frampton*.

Written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, the single was the fourth and final single off Voulez-Vous, ABBA’s sixth studio album. The b-side was a live version of ’Take a Chance on Me’ recorded at Wembley.

ABBA – I Have a Dream (Live Version Wembley Arena 1979)

Peak positions for ‘I Have a Dream’ (ABBA):

  • Australia: 64
  • Austria: 1
  • Canada: 1
  • The Netherlands: 1
  • Ireland: 2
  • Switzerland: 1
  • UK: 2

Westlife – I Have a Dream

In December 1999, the track returned in a new version by Westlife. The new version was produced by Pete Waterman – one third of the hugely successful production team Stock, Aitken & Waterman – together with David Foster. The latter has produced artists such as Will Young, Rick Astley and Five.

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Read everything about Westlife

Westlife’s version reached No.1, becoming the boy band’s fourth chart-topper in the UK. It was a double A-side single, also including a cover of Jacques Brel’s 1961 hit ‘Seasons in the Sun’ which was made famous by Terry Jacks in 1973.

The 1999 version was the UK Christmas No.1, continuing its chart-run into 2000 – a new millennium. In total, it spent 17 weeks on the chart becoming the 26th biggest selling single of 1999. The hit was succeeded by Bob the Builder’s novelty hit ‘Can We Fix It?’

Peak positions for ‘I Have a Dream’ (Westlife):

  • Denmark: 11
  • Europe: 7
  • Finland: 10
  • Germany: 24
  • Ireland: 1
  • New Zealand: 10
  • Norway: 10
  • Scotland: 1
  • Sweden: 15
  • Switzerland: 18
  • UK: 1

*CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this blog post, David Foster was pointed out as the producer of the Westlife track. Apologies for that.

Spotify Pushes Hot New Remixes of Seal

Seal released his seventh studio album Commitment back in September 2010. The set was produced by legendary producer David Foster. Throughout the years, Foster has discovered artists such as Céline Dion, Josh Groban and Michael Bublé.

Spotify currently pushes new Jimster remixes of “Weight of My Mistakes” and “Here I Am (Come and Take Me).” The former is included on the set and released as a single back in November 2010. The single failed to make any impact on the charts, while the first single “Secret” did manage to peak at No.82.

Commitment did, however, chart and peaked at No.11 on the UK albums chart and No.31 on the Billboard 200.

Seal got his breakthrough in 1990 with “Crazy,” which topped charts across the world. While peaking at No.2 in the UK, it topped tallies in Sweden, Holland and Switzerland. While originally appearing as the singer of Adamski’s “Killer” (a UK No.1 hit in ’90), Seal re-recorded the track and manage to chart again in 1991.

The soul/pop singer has issued close to 30 singles throughout the years, most notably the WelcheMusic favourite “Kiss from a Rose” which had two chart runs. It was released as a single in 1994, then remixed for the Batman Forever soundtrack. In the UK, the track first peaked at No.20 only to return to the charts a year later as a chart topper.

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