The group has also two number one singles on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play, “Say It’s Gonna Rain” and “Fading Away”, and continues to create music into the 21st century- and is currently performing live (Bob Rosenberg and Elin Michaels).
The early years:
Bob Rosenberg was born on January 18, 1959, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Gloria Mann, was a pop singer who had two Top 40 pop hits in the mid-1950s on the Sound Records label, "Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)" and "Teen Age Prayer". After attending school in Florida, Rosenberg became a DJ at various local events, and by 1985 he was working at a Miami CHR radio station, WHQT (Hot 105). He remixed and edited songs as a radio-mix DJ for the station, and these mixes became popular in the Miami area. Rosenberg created a rap record in 1985 that was titled "Miami Vice", based on the popular TV show and its theme song, but MCA Records claimed that Rosenberg had infringed on their copyright. He also remixed and edited the song "Beat Box" for 2 Live Crew's 1986 debut album, The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are.
During 1986 and 1987, Rosenberg worked with various other musicians to create original music. He chose the name Will to Power for the group as homage to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of an individual's fundamental Will to Power.
1986 to 1988: Rosenberg wrote "Dreamin'" as a tribute to his sister, Robin, after she had died. Radio program director Bill Tanner was the first PD to play "Dreamin" on Power 96 in Miami, Florida.Released in Miami on the Thrust Records label; "Dreamin'" became a regional hit and got the attention of Epic Records, who picked up the song for distribution to radio stations and dance clubs around the country. The song peaked at No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in August 1987. It also reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart in September of that year. Epic Records asked Rosenberg if he had enough material for an album. In June 1988, Will to Power released a follow-up single, "Say It's Gonna Rain", This song reached No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in July 1988 and spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in August and September of that year.
In the spring of 1987, after Dreamin single was released on Rosenberg’s label Thrust records, CBS/Epic and other labels took note of it. The single became an instant hit. Bob Rosenberg was exclusively offered a record deal, and was signed with CBS/Epic Records in April 1987. Although he was signed with just a single, Rosenberg along with his then girlfriend, and one of the five vocalists on the song Dreamin’, Suzi Carr, and her friend, Saxaphonist, Dr J, began touring and performing back-to-back at different shows nationwide.
Rosenberg’s contract included the opportunity to record various albums. Rosenberg began the planning and spent much of 1987 and early 1988 working on new material with a variety of different session vocalists, (Carr, Newman, Lorenzo, and others), and musicians including (keyboardists Lawrence Dermer, Lester Mendez and David Rosenthal). Will to Power’s self-titled debut album, was released on Epic Records in March 1988. Along with the aforementioned songs "Dreamin'" and "Say It's Gonna Rain", the album contained a medley of two popular rock songs from the 1970s, "Baby, I Love Your Way" (a 1976 hit record for Peter Frampton) and "Free Bird" (a well-known track by the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1973). This medley, titled "Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley (Free Baby)" Although Epic was reluctant to release this hybrid song as a single, Rosenberg had distributed copies of the song to various radio stations in the Miami vicinity, including WPOW (Power 96). According to Rosenberg, "they played it, and a few other stations caught onto it, so Epic put it out." This song became the group's biggest hit, spending a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching No. 2 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart in December 1988. It also became the group's highest-charting hit in the UK, reaching No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart. That month, the album reached its peak position of No. 68 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. A fourth single from the album, "Fading Away", which spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in early 1989.
1989 to 1991: Journey Home
After the success of the debut album, Will to Power's follow-up album, Journey Home, was released in late 1990. Rosenberg continued with the group, producing the album, recording vocals and writing most of the songs. The primary female vocalist was then Elin Michaels, a dance-pop singer who sang all of the background vocals (along with Rosenberg's cousin, Rachel Newman, and former Expose singer, Ale Lorenzo), on all of the songs for the first album. Elin, Rachel, and Ale’s background voices are prominent in both, “Say It's Gonna Rain and "Fading Away”. Singer Elin Michaels had respectively released some 12" singles on the Knockout Records label in the mid-1980s. Additional musicians who worked on the album include Donna Allen, Dee Dee Wilde, Wendy Pederson and Harry King on additional vocals, Ed Calle and Tony Concepción on horns, Orlando Hernandez on drums and Lester Mendez on keyboards. The album appeared on the Billboard 200 albums chart in February 1991, peaking at #178.
The first single to be released from the album was "I'm Not in Love", a cover version of a song by the British art rock band 10cc that was a No. 1 UK and No. 2 US pop hit in 1975. Will to Power's version made the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 7 in January 1991 in addition to reaching No. 4 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart. The song reached No. 29 in the UK pop chart. The follow-up single was a cover of the disco hit "Boogie Nights" by the band Heatwave; however, this version failed to chart. Other songs on the album include "Fly Bird" and "Clock on the Wall".
1992 to present
In 1996, Sony Music Entertainment (the parent company of Epic Records) released a Will to Power compilation album, Love Power, on their Sony Special Products label. It consists of songs that had appeared on the group's first two albums, including their two US pop top ten songs, "Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley" and "I'm Not in Love".
The group released a new album, Spirit Warrior, in 2004 on Straight Blast Records, which was followed by an EP in 2006 titled Spirit Warrior: The Remixes. For this album, Rosenberg collaborated with vocalists such as Gioia Bruno (member of the freestyle music group Exposé), Donna Allen and Wendy Pederson, and remixers such as Giuseppe D and the Wonder Twins.
Critical reception:
Allmusic's retrospective reviews of the group's first two albums are generally positive, with Will to Power receiving four stars out of a possible five and Journey Home receiving three stars. Entertainment Weekly gave Journey Home a D+ rating in a February 1991 review by Bill Wyman, stating, "The material is predominantly colorless pop songs". However, music journalist Chuck Eddy mentions tracks from Journey Home in his 1997 book, The Accidental Evolution of Rock 'n' Roll: A Misguided Tour Through Popular Music. In the section titled "Automotive Rock", Eddy mentions that the song "Journey Home" is the title track of what may have been his favorite album of the 1990s, that it is seemingly based on the 1981 song "Cruising with the Deuce" by Quarterflash and that Rosenberg "says he's got to keep his motor running, but not only can you feel the machine's momentum (in the rhythm), you can also feel stormclouds settling in (in the voices)."
Dreamin'
Will to Power Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Don't you stop me from belivin', I'm dreamin'
You, you came into my life
Without a reason why
Why did you have to smile
Why did you have to touch my soul
It cries right out for you
My heart depends on you
So say you'll never leave me
[Repeat Chorus]
You, you walked out of my life
We didn't even say goodbye
I didn't even hear you cry
I know how hard you tried
'cause your soul
is still part of my dreams
You'll never know what I mean
I miss you but you'll never see
You said you'd never leave me
[Repeat Chorus]
Stay with me, don't ever go away
(Stay with me)
Being with you is a holdiay
(is a holiday)
If this dream should ever fade away
(dream should ever fade away)
You will still be here with me today
(You will still be here with me today)
Seems so far, but I don't know why
Keep on pushing up to the sky
I'm dreaming, beliven'
Time is running, but I don't why
Keep on pushing up to the sky
I'm dreaming, beliven'
I'm dreaming
beliven'
I'm dreaming
beliven'
You mean the world to me
The time is right for you to see
You mean the world to me
Top40db: The most accurate lyrics site on the net.
The time is right for you to see
You mean the world to me
The time is right for you to see
Seems so far, but I don't know why
Keep on pushing up to the sky
I'm dreaming, beliven'
Time is running, but I don't why
Keep on pushing up to the sky
I'm dreaming, beliven'
I'm dreaming
beliven'
The lyrics of the song "Dreamin'" by Will to Power are about a person who is deeply in love and dreaming of being with their partner forever. The chorus of the song repeats the lines "tell me that I'm dreamin', I'm dreamin', don't you stop me from believin', I'm dreamin'" which expresses the singer's desire to retain their hope and optimism around their relationship. The first verse of the song talks about how the singer's partner came into their life, and the second verse talks about how their partner left without even saying goodbye. Despite the heartache, the singer keeps on dreaming and believing that their partner will come back to them.
The lyrics are accompanied by upbeat music that reflects the singer's hopefulness and the dream-like quality of the song. The chorus is particularly catchy and represents the idea of a dream that feels real to the person experiencing it. The song ends with the lines "you mean the world to me, the time is right for you to see" which implies that the singer is willing to wait for their partner to return to them.
Overall, the lyrics of "Dreamin'" evoke a sense of longing and desire for something that may or may not be possible. It captures the experience of being deeply in love, but also the pain of loss and uncertainty that often comes with it.
Line by Line Meaning
Tell me that I'm dreamin', I'm dreamin'
Asking someone to confirm if what the singer is thinking is simply a figment of imagination, a dream.
Don't you stop me from belivin', I'm dreamin'
Asking the listener to let the singer believe in his/her dreams and not stop him/her.
You, you came into my life
Without a reason why
Why did you have to smile
Why did you have to touch my soul
Questioning the reason behind someone's presence in the singer's life, why he/she chose to put a smile on the singer's face and touched his/her soul.
It cries right out for you
I love the things you do
My heart depends on you
So say you'll never leave me
Expressing the artist's love and dependence for the person, and hoping that he/she will never leave them.
[Repeat Chorus]
Repeating the chorus of the song.
You, you walked out of my life
We didn't even say goodbye
I didn't even hear you cry
I know how hard you tried
The person mentioned earlier walked out of the singer's life without any farewell, making it hard for the singer to understand what went wrong; the singer acknowledges that the person did try hard though.
'cause your soul
is still part of my dreams
You'll never know what I mean
I miss you but you'll never see
You said you'd never leave me
The singer admits that the person's soul is still present in the singer's dreams, but the person will never know what the singer means; the singer misses the person but he/she will never realize it since he/she promised not to leave.
[Repeat Chorus]
Repeating the chorus of the song.
Stay with me, don't ever go away
(Stay with me)
Being with you is a holdiay
(is a holiday)
If this dream should ever fade away
(dream should ever fade away)
You will still be here with me today
(You will still be here with me today)
Asking the person to stay with the artist, never leaving, since being together feels like a holiday; acknowledging that if this dream fades away, the person will still be in the artist's life.
Seems so far, but I don't know why
Keep on pushing up to the sky
I'm dreaming, beliven'
Time is running, but I don't why
Keep on pushing up to the sky
I'm dreaming, beliven'
I'm dreaming
beliven'
I'm dreaming
beliven'
Despite the dream seeming far away and the passage of time, the artist urges himself/herself to keep on believing and pursuing that dream.
You mean the world to me
The time is right for you to see
You mean the world to me
Top40db: The most accurate lyrics site on the net.
The time is right for you to see
Expressing how much the person means to the singer and that it's the ideal time for him/her to realize it, using the Top40db website as a reference to the song's lyrics.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: ROBERT ROSENBERG
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Antenor
05:36 You mean the world to me
The time is right for you to see
You mean the world to me
The time is right for you to see
You mean the world to me
The time is right for you to see
Seems so far, but I don't know why
Keep on pushing up to the sky
I'm dreaming, believin'
Time is running, but I don't why
Keep on pushing up to the sky
I'm dreaming, believin'
I'm dreaming
Believin'
Gregory May
That lone sax part...just love it. And that guy's voice with it... soooo '80s.
Extrememdp
This recording sounds GREAT! Very clear!
vanessarfcrj
Muito boa!
Antonio Flo
I remember this song when I live in L.A. back in 1987 - wow, such great memories, I swear!!!!!
Antenor
05:36 You mean the world to me
The time is right for you to see
You mean the world to me
The time is right for you to see
You mean the world to me
The time is right for you to see
Seems so far, but I don't know why
Keep on pushing up to the sky
I'm dreaming, believin'
Time is running, but I don't why
Keep on pushing up to the sky
I'm dreaming, believin'
I'm dreaming
Believin'
Hare Nogueira
Dancei muito isso na danceteria"halley som" em ribeirão das neves mg, anos 80 tempo bom!!
Lisa M
The 80s had the best music EVER!!!!
Raimondo Isanali
THE 80'S HAS THE BEST MUSIC AND THE LAST DECADE WITH LOVE FOR MUSIC!
P Joy
Love this song!!!!!!!!!!!
Gregory May
All of Will to Power songs are in my 12" collection...