"I'm Not Dreaming" is a song performed by the American singer Zulema (and friend) in 1978. She sang in a duet with a supposedly mysterious male singer.

Background

The song, "I'm Not Dreaming", was written and produced by

Van McCoy Van Allen Clinton McCoy (January 6, 1940 – July 6, 1979) was an American record producer, arranger, songwriter and singer. He is known for his 1975 internationally successful hit " The Hustle". He has approximately 700 song copyrights to his c ...

. Backed with her own composition, "Gotta Find a Way" was released on LeJoint 5N-34002 in 1978. The album of the same name was reviewed by ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' in the November 4, 1978 issue. The two tracks selected by the magazine were ballads, "Praying for a Miracle" and "I'm Not Dreaming". Appearing in the soul section of ''Billboards Top Soul Picks for the week of January 20, 1979, the single received a warm review. The unnamed friend singing in duet with Zulema was actually Van McCoy. In assessment of the release in a duet format, the reviewer put it on par with other "silky, romantic" recent hit recordings by

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his 69-year career with singles of standard (music), standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as ...

Deniece Williams June Deniece Williams (née Chandler; born June 3, 1950) is an American singer. She has been described as "one of the great Soul music, soul voices" by the BBC. She is best known for the songs "Free (Deniece Williams song), Free", "Silly (song ...

, and

Roberta Flack Roberta Cleopatra Flack (February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025) was an American singer and pianist known for her emotive, genre-blending ballads that spanned R&B, jazz, Folk music, folk, and pop and contributed to the birth of the quiet storm ...

Donny Hathaway Donny Edward Hathaway (October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979) was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, backing vocalist, and arranger who ''Rolling Stone'' described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include " The Ghetto" ...

. It had been reviewed earlier that month as well by ''Cash Box'' in the magazine's January 6 issue. Along with " I Go to Rio" by

Pablo Cruise Pablo Cruise is an American pop/ rock band from San Francisco currently composed of David Jenkins (guitar and vocals), Cory Lerios ( keyboards and vocals), Sergio Gonzalez (drums), Larry Antonino (bass and vocals), and Robbie Wyckoff (vocal ...

, "Dancin'" by Grey & Hanks and "Living in a Dream" by

Sea Level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

, it was one of the four Feature Picks for that week. The reviewer noted that both singers known in the

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

genre had a release that was pure MOR pop. The potential to appeal to a wide range of formats was also noted. The song appears on her album, ''Z-Licious'' (Lejoint – LEJ 17000) which was made up of three Van McCoy compositions and eight of her own.

Charts

The song debuted at No. 95 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot Soul Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 po ...

chart for the week ending February 3, 1979. It peaked at #76 at week seven on March 17, and held the position for another week, spending a total of nine weeks in the chart. For the week of February 10, the song debuted at No. 97 on the ''Cash Box'' Top 100 R&B chart and peaked at No. 86. It spent a total of eight weeks in the Top 100 R&B chart.''Cash Box'', April 7, 1979
Page 42 CASH BOX TOP 100, April 7, 1979
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References

{{reflist

External links

* patg78 channel
Zulema - I'm Not Dreaming
* Everybody disco! channel
Soap Factory Disco w/ Zulema Cousseaux & Van McCoy Part 2 at 6:11
Songs written by Van McCoy Song recordings produced by Van McCoy 1978 singles Van McCoy songs Zulema songs