In 1985, singer-songwriter Martin Page, who co-wrote Starship's "We Built This City" and would later go on to co-write Go West's "King of Wishful Thinking", and Bernie Taupin, longtime collaborator of Elton John, wrote a song which would later be titled "These Dreams".

According to The Billboard Book of Number One Hits by Fred Bronson, when it came time for Nancy Wilson to record her vocals, she was suffering from a cold and sounded somewhat raspy and gravelly.

After the song reached commercial success, producers reportedly wanted Wilson to recreate the vocal style on future recordings, asking her: "Can't you just get sick again?

"[3] The liner notes of Heart state that the track was dedicated to Wilson's good friend Sharon Hess, who died from leukemia shortly before it was released.

A remix of the track, at a length of 5 minutes and 25 seconds, appears on a UK limited laser-etched, one-sided 12" single edition upon which a scratch vocal is used.