The lyrics explore feelings of longing and hope that the singer's love interest is thinking about her while she is dreaming of him at night.

[2][3] Quintanilla Jr. chose EMI Latin's offer because of the potential for a crossover, and he wanted his children to be the first musicians to sign with the company.

[12] He was unable to produce the crossover album since he was working on Selena's follow-up Spanish-language recording to Amor Prohibido (1994), slated to be released several months after her English-language attempt.

Selena chose "Dreaming of You", a number written by American songwriters Franne Golde and Tom Snow in 1989.

Her father asked her to "just try" and sing the song because several producers had arrived from Los Angeles to watch her record the track.

[19] Larry Flick, also from Billboard, called the song a "wonderful romantic pop ballad" and that it "warmly illuminates the strengths of her girlish voice and easy going delivery."

Flick believed that because of the singer's death, the track's lyrical content is "sweetly optimistic" and that it "[takes] on an affecting poignancy that will not be lost on AC and pop radio programmers.

"[20] John Lannert, a Latin music contributor for Billboard magazine, wrote in the Dreaming of You booklet that Selena "wrapped her creamy seductive mezzo sound around slow confessionals such as "I Could Fall in Love", "Missing My Baby", and the title track.

[22] Many media outlets, including the Milwaukee Journal and Billboard magazine, called them "confessional ballads",[23] with an emotionally vulnerable narrator who wants true love but finds it unattainable.

The song then plays at a moderate tempo, when Selena sings the chorus that she is dreaming of her lover and telling him that she plans on holding him the next day.

[25] Deborah Walker of the Sun Sentinel called the Spanish-language verse "gentle nothings over her own vocals", saying that "such musings appear to have come from the heart.

[28] Conversely, Peter Watrous of The New York Times felt that the songwriters who worked with Selena for her English-language debut album "didn't step up to the bar with their best material" and dismissed her English offerings as "faceless commerce.

"[29] Watrous believed that because of the singer's vocals on the songs, it suggested "that she had a good chance of success, working lush ballads in an anonymous pop style that Disney has mastered.

"[29] A San Jose Mercury News reporter wrote that "Dreaming of You" and "I Could Fall in Love" had turned Selena into "the new Gloria Estefan",[30] Peter Harrington of The Washington Post called the sales and radio airplay of the song "extraordinary", saying the song was "eliciting strong radio reaction from both English- and Spanish-language stations, particularly in the Southwest [of the United States].

"[17] Considine stated that the song "exactly [sounds] like the sort of thing Madonna was doing [in the 1980s] -- right down to the dramatic, throaty vibrato she uses to flesh out the low notes in the chorus.

"[27] He further insisted that the track "is by no means as danceable as Paula Abdul or Madonna's best; none are as rhythmically insinuating as "Techno Cumbia," one of the album's oldies.

But it's no problem that these new tracks prefer perky charm over aggressive, club-savvy grooves, as there's something so straight-laced about Selena's musical persona that it would have seemed out of character for her to have attempted the kind of club-conscious material Madonna [was doing at the time].

[37] Josh Cantu of the San Antonio Current said in April 2015, that the track is a "heartfelt song", after Heartfire Media released a tribute video featuring the recording.

[39] Emmanuel Hapsis of KQED stated that "pop culture moves at breakneck speed, yet two decades later, Selena's impact is still deeply felt.

"[40] "Dreaming of You" and "I Could Fall in Love" were EMI Records' top selling digital downloads from April 1, 2004, to March 31, 2005.

[42][43] The song won a BMI Pop Music Award for having two million airplay impressions in the United States.

[45] The Ellensburg Daily Record named "Dreaming of You" among their list of "The World's Greatest First Dance Songs" for a wedding.

[49] Latina magazine placed "Dreaming of You" at number eight on their "Remembering Selena: Her Top Ten Songs" list.

[61] On its third week on the Hot Latin Songs chart, "Dreaming of You" reached number 16 and represented a spike in airplay impressions.

She then kisses her sleeping father on the head before packing; her mother is seen in the kitchen cleaning and then leaves to the back looking up to the sky.

[71] Charlie Huero of Power 106 was asked to be the radio announcer by EMI Records producer Sean Lynch.