Growing up with parents who came of age in the ’40s and ’50s, I was no stranger to most of the material on Chicago’s Night & Day: Big Band album.
“Dream a Little Dream” is one of those old standards that has been covered by a plethora of artists over the years. Perhaps one of the most well-known of those is Mama Cass’s heartfelt rendition for the Mamas and the Papas. There’s a vulnerability in her vocals that elevates the song above its rather understated delivery.
Chicago, on the other hand, went the opposite direction. Their arrangement is much stronger than that of the Mamas and the Papas’ version, making it sound like a completely different song. Between the brass and background vocals by the early-’90s R&B hitmakers Jade, the Chicago update is considerably more polished. It’s not quite to Phil Spector “Wall of Sound” levels (thankfully), but the arrangement does, on some levels, betray the vulnerable plea of the lyrics.
Jason Scheff proves once again that he sings best when he is allowed to be himself and not forced to try to sound like his predecessor. Given the arrangement, it would have been impossible for him to inject the same level of vulnerability that Mama Cass did in the much more stripped-down environment. That said, his vocals deliver as much of that vulnerability as the beefier Chicago approach allows.
All in all, this is one of the more enjoyable songs on Night & Day: Big Band. “Dream a Little Dream” does exactly what Chicago set out to do: Rather than try to cover this the way others had in the past, they took a classic and made it their own.
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