Andy Gibb and Victoria Principal
"All I Have To Do Is Dream"
RSO, 1981
highest chart position : number fifty-one
some stats :
views : 5.705.388
comments: 1.890
There is a deluge of praise, expressions of good feelings, fond memories, etc. It's so overflowing it's sickening.
Fortunately, there are some people who are not impressed and who have not lost all critical thinking. Such good people are Jimmy Guterman & Owen O'Donnell. They authored a book in 1991, The Worst Rock 'n Roll Records of All Time, A fan guide to the stuff you love to hate. Here is the page they wrote about "All I Have To Do Is Dream"
Love makes us all do stupid things. Couples celebrates their love in ways that look foolish to the outside world. Far too often the desire to be close to a loved one can lead you to bring him or her into parts of your life that should remain separate.
When you're a celebrity, the possibilities for acting stupid in these ways increase exponentially. The romance between teenybopper idol Andy Gibb and nighttime-soap airhead Victoria Principal (Pamela Ewing on "Dallas") was big. Hollywood news in the early eighties (it was especially big news to Gibb's press agents, who no longer had Top Ten singles to flog). It helped that the two lovebirds were agreeable. Their photograhs were everywhere, accompanied by brief articles in which they swore their endless love. Alas, as with most Hollywood assertions of true love, this pair didn't last too long. (Fine by us; imagine the bland entertainer that could have resulted from that gene pool.) Heartbroken, Gibb didn't last much longer himself.
Yet one artifact remains from the affair: a duet single by Andy and Victoria. "All I Have To Do Is Dream." And all Victoria had to do was get voice lessons. At no point in this cover of the Everly Brothers classic did executive producer Gibb let his duet partner go it alone. He covered for her, as a lover should.
But Gibb himself doesn't have much to offer to the song. Aside from the novelty of hearing a Gibb brother warble along with someone who has an even higher voice, his vocal performanece is far below even that of his hits "I Just Want to Be Your Anything" and "Shadow Dancing." Afraid of overshadowing Principal, he stays in the background: even his few solo sections are brief and deferential.
This is soft rock at its most squishy: weak drums provide no beat, mushy synthesized strings conjure up no atmosphere. All you hear in the vocals are one mediocre singer and his untalented girlfriend hamming up their few moments in the spolight. If J.R. had any brains, he would have had someone follow Pamela to the studio and steal the master tapes to "All I Have to Do Is Dream." thus rescuing the Ewing family from unnecessary scandal. That would have been true love.
