Song · Elvis Presley
“If I Can Dream” by Elvis Presley
Released 1968
“If I Can Dream” by Elvis Presley appears on 1 radio countdown from 1 station in 2020. It was first released in 1968. Its best result is #1644 on the WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #7,153 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Elvis Presley's "If I Can Dream" was written to close NBC's Elvis, the June 1968 special now better known as the '68 Comeback Special. Billy Goldenberg and Walter Earl Brown of the Skylarks got the call for a finale to replace "I'll Be Home for Christmas", and Brown, knowing how much Presley admired Martin Luther King Jr. and how hard King's killing in Memphis had hit him, wrote the song with Elvis in mind. The words carry clear echoes of King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech.
Presley recorded it that June, two months after King was assassinated and not long after Robert F. Kennedy was. Hearing the demo, he swore he was done singing songs he didn't believe in, and he sings it like he means it. The public first heard it as the special's closing number, and RCA released it that year.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1644 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
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