Songfacts®:

• In this song, Carly Simon advocates for the kind of dependable guy that might not light your fire anymore but can make you happy if you let him. You just need to use your imagination and change your frame of reference.
  
  This kind of pragmatic love song about a slow and steady relationship that requires some work isn't common but is more true to life than the many songs about a red-hot passion. It's a case for settling:
  
  Just because you don't see shooting stars
  Doesn't mean it isn't perfect
• The title comes from a line in the 1941 movie The Maltese Falcon, where Humphrey Bogart's character, the detective Sam Spade, describes the statuette at the center of the plot as "the stuff that dreams are made of."
• Simon didn't tour for the Coming Around Again album because she would sometimes get very anxious on stage. She was also out of the MTV demographic by this time, so it was very hard for her to promote the song. Fortunately for her, VH1 launched in 1985 with a target audience right in her sights. In lieu of touring, Simon played two small concerts to private audiences at Martha's Vineyard that were edited into an HBO special. Her performance of "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" was extracted as a music video that aired on VH1.
  
  The result was a comeback of sorts by Simon, as the Coming Around Again became her first million-seller in America since Boys In The Trees in 1978.
• The Timothy Wright Concert Choir backs Simon on this track. Wright was a popular gospel singer who was also a reverend in Brooklyn. He formed the choir, which released a few albums of gospel music, in 1976.