I'm not putting it down, it's just what it is, but I just sat down and wrote it, you know, with no real inspiration, based on a dream I'd had.According to May Pang's website, two working titles for the song were "So Long Ago" and "Walls & Bridges".

[3] Pang added that Al Coury of Capitol Records initially protested against the use of the word "pussy" in the chorus, but after Lori Burton, the wife of studio engineer Roy Cicala, suggested that it should be sung as "poussé", as if in a foreign language, the lyrics were kept.

"[2] Lennon liked the string arrangement he wrote for Harry Nilsson's rendition of "Many Rivers to Cross", originally by Jimmy Cliff, from the album Pussy Cats so much that he decided to incorporate it into the song.

Billboard commented on the contrast with Lennon's previous single from Walls and Bridges, "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", stating that "#9 Dream" is a "soft rocker" with "strong production" values which it expected would reach the Top 5.

[6] Cash Box said that it "is milder and more gentle than ['Whatever Gets You Through the Night'] with fine and subdued instrumentation acting as mellow cushion to John's vocal" and said that "the lyrics are super.