[5] After a crowd of Mexican-Americans ran Los Dinos out of a nightclub for singing English-language songs, the band decided to perform music of their heritage.

According to Betty Cortina of People magazine, Dreaming of You marked a shift that abrogated the singer being marketed as part of her band and billed Selena as an American solo artist in "the most fundamental way for her".

[27] Recording sessions began in December 1994 at The Bennett House in Franklin, Tennessee; Selena had to return later when Thomas could provide additional vocals.

[27] In a 2002 interview, Pérez said Thomas provided Selena with a cassette of "I Could Fall in Love" and said she had the song "on loop" and she "must have heard it a hundred times".

[27] Her sister and drummer of the band, Suzette Quintanilla, said in a 1997 interview that the singer carefully chose a song that represented what "Selena was all about".

[32][33][34] Selena recorded "God's Child (Baila Conmigo)", a duet with David Byrne that was included on the soundtrack of the comedy film Blue in the Face (1995).

[44][45] Music journalists said producers who worked with Selena tried to caricature her with Paula Abdul, Amy Grant, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Madonna.

[53][51][54] Larry Flick of Billboard magazine wrote that "Dreaming of You"'s idealistic lyrics have an "affecting poignancy that will not be lost on AC [radio].

"[55] "God's Child (Baila Conmigo)" employs an off-beat rhythm that is energetic, dark, mysterious, and its lyrics suggest subterfuge and counter-hegemony.

[59] Mario Tarradell of The New London Day said "Captive Heart" and "I'm Getting Used to You" border on new jack swing—a popular R&B subgenre pioneered by Jade and Mary J.

Christopher John Farley of Time magazine said the producers who excluded the songs regretted this move following the impact of Selena's death.

[62] EMI Records, which wanted the 1992 track "Missing My Baby" and the 1994 single "Techno Cumbia" to be added to Dreaming of You, asked Quintanilla III to meet with R&B group Full Force in Manhattan.

[27] "Como la Flor", credited as a career-launching single,[63] expresses the sorrow of a woman whose lover has abandoned her for another partner while she wishes "nothing but the best" for him.

[69] The Barrio Boyzz was asked to record a bilingual version of their Spanish-language duet with Selena on "Donde Quiera Que Estés" (1994) called "Wherever You Are".

[27] Davitt Sigerson, the president and CEO of EMI Records, feared "I Could Fall in Love" might sell more copies than Dreaming of You, so he did not issue the single as a commercial release.

[79] On August 14, 1995, "Dreaming of You" was released as the album's lead single, with the remix version and a radio edit of "Techno Cumbia" as the b-side tracks.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said Dreaming of You was the first recording by Selena to have been heard by the general population of the United States because her death attracted American listeners to her album.

[104] Vibe magazine contributor Ed Morales, described the album as a summation of her cumbia-influenced songs, her Tex-Mex (Texas-Mexico) "excellence", and a "poignant glimpse" of the path the singer's musical career may have taken had she lived.

He said the producers who worked with Selena on the album had decisively paired her with recordings that reminded him of lighter versions of Paula Abdul and called them "greeting-card sentiments".

[106] Writing for the New York Daily News, Mary Talbot said listening to Dreaming of You was "akin to sifting through a dead woman's scrapbook" and called it "disparate jottings and snapshots some artful, some light, all weighted with nostalgia".

[101] She called the English offerings "sturdy, generic pop numbers" that would be favored among her Tejano following "but there aren't enough of them to prove her strength or breadth as an English-language artist".

[101] Mario Tarradell of The Dallas Morning News said the album "doesn't deliver", writing that Selena was "revamped to sound like one of pop radio's many generic female vocalist" and that her English recordings lack "the bubbly, effervescent personality, the chica-del-barrio charm" found on her Tejano songs.

[107] Peter Watrous of The New York Times called Dreaming of You "a collection of leftovers" and said the Spanish-language songs "sound better" than Selena's English ones.

[108] He further wrote that "the music is faceless commerce" but that Selena recorded them "so well on the album" that it suggested "she had a good chance of success, working lush ballads in an anonymous pop style that Disney has mastered".

[108] Rock music contributor Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant described Dreaming of You as "a package that hints at the overall talent and immense potential of the young star".

[106] It was named as the third-best posthumous album of all-time by BET, which called the recording a "heartbreaking testament to a young talent on the verge of superstardom".

[104] Within ten months of its release, the album was nearing triple-platinum status;[136] it was eventually certified 59× platinum (Latin field) by the RIAA, denoting 3.54 million album-equivalent units sold.

[148] In Dreaming of You's first week of release to music stores in Mexico, EMI shipped 140,000 units there and received re-orders from Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Tijuana.

[154] Musicologist Howard J. Blumenthal said it "would have made [Selena] a major rock star", and included it in his 1997 book The World Music CD Listener's Guide.

[116][161][159] Following the album's release, and because of the singer's death, Tejano music's popularity waned as Latin pop began dominating U.S. radio play and commercial sales.