Songfacts®:

• "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" was the last of three US #1 hits for Billy Ocean, following "Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)" and "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)." He wrote and produced it with Robert John "Mutt" Lange, which explains the title. Lange isn't afraid to use titles that sound like very bold - and very bad - pickup lines. He also co-wrote the Def Leppard smash "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and Heart's "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You."
  
  For "Get Outta My Dreams," Lange came up with the chorus and Billy Ocean added most of the verse lyrics, which elaborate on the proposition with more slyly sexual car references ("Touch my bumper!").
• Mutt Lange produced hits for AC/DC, Foreigner, The Cars, Bryan Adams, and many others, but "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" was the first song he co-wrote that went to #1. He nearly hit that mark with Ocean's "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" in 1986, but it stopped at #2. A few months after "Get Outta My Dreams" hit the top spot in 1988, Lange hit the top again with his Def Leppard co-write "Love Bites."
• Billy Ocean was born in Trinidad but grew up in London. He and his friends rode scooters, but he knew "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Onto My Scooter" wouldn't have the same impact.
• Some British broadcasters balked at this song, concerned that it sounded like Ocean was trying to pick up a prostitute or entice a girl with bad intentions. To appease them, his label made a radio edit with the "hey! you!" shouts at the beginning removed.
• This was the last big hit for Billy Ocean, whose run of hits in the '80s seemed to come out of nowhere but were really the product of years of hard work. He started out in the '70s, first as the frontman for local bands, then as a solo artist, using his real name, Les Charles. When he changed his stage name to Billy Ocean, he had a modest hit with "Love Really Hurts Without You," which went to #22 in the US and #2 in the UK. He had a few more UK hits but fell off the radar in America until "Caribbean Queen" in 1984. When his star turn came, he was focused and determined. He didn't make headlines, but was a constant chart presence with songs like "Loverboy" and "Suddenly." He took some well-deserved time off in the '90s but never retired, returning from time to time with a new album or tour.
• The music video is very clever, with Ocean pulling into a car wash, where he sees his dream girl. An animated duck shows up from time to time, making it clear this is all good fun.
  
  The video was directed by Terence Bulley, who has lots of credits on movies as a director of photography.
• This song was part of the soundtrack to the 1988 film License to Drive, a teen flick starring the "two Coreys" - Feldman and Haim.
  
  NASCAR fans will recognize this song as having been covered by Fenix TX for the video game NASCAR Thunder 2003.
  
  And one more media mention: It was featured in the debut for The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien, with O'Brien bebopping around town to the song.
• By turning the words "Out Of" into "Outta" in the title, Ocean kept it to eight words, which is good for him. His previous American #1s both had eight-word titles as well ("Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)," "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)"), while his nine-word hit, "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going," stalled at #2.