In Your Wildest Dreams
by Tina Turner (featuring Barry White)

Album: Wildest Dreams (1996)
Charted: 32 101

Songfacts®:

  • This sultry duet teams Tina Turner with Barry White as they sing about a night of lovemaking. Much of the song is spoken word, with Turner proffering lines like "my heart is pumping for you" and "the night is hot outside your window," while White answers with "as a mad thing starts" and "I hear people walking people talking." White was right in his element with the seductive style, but it was far more unusual for Turner.

    The song was written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman, who don't play it safe when it comes to songwriting - they're the team that wrote "Love Is A Battlefield." So it wasn't out of character for them to pitch a spoken-word song to Turner.

    In a Songfacts interview with Knight, she explained: "When we gave her the demo we were completely talking. It was narrative on the verses because we thought that would be kind of sexy, and then she breaks into the melodies on the chorus. But she did it as a duet with Barry White, and Barry White had a very, very low voice. When he spoke it was like the floor rumbled."
  • Turner recorded a version with the actor Antonio Banderas that was released on the European version of the album. In this version, Turner does all the vocals until the end, when Banderas comes in with a part-Spanish, part-English spoken section.
  • Trevor Horn, known for his work in Yes and The Buggles, produced this track.
  • This song provided the title to Turner's 1996 album Wildest Dreams, and its subsequent tour, where she included the song in her setlist. Oprah Winfrey, a huge Tina Turner fan, also got on board, following the tour with her own tour bus for about two weeks on her own "Wildest Dreams" tour. At different stops on the tour, Oprah would find women in need and make their dreams come true with a big giveaway (a hallmark of her show). For the finale, Winfrey joined Turner on stage at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on May 13, 1997 to perform "The Best." Turner performed the song on Oprah February 21, 1997.
  • Nick Park, who worked on Wallace And Gromit and Chicken Run, made a comical claymation video for this song with avatars of Turner and Barry White (Wallace And Gromit and Antonio Banderas also make cameos). According to John Altman, who did the arrangement on the song, White hated it because he thought it was making fun of his weight.
  • On February 22, 1997, Turner performed "In Your Wildest Dreams" when she was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live.

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