Dan Hartman (b.1950 d.1994) was an American pop rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer, and songwriter. Among the many songs he wrote and recorded were "Free Ride" as a member of the Edgar Winter Group, and the solo hits "Relight My Fire" (later made famous by Take That), UK Top 10 hit "Instant Replay" and "I Can Dream About You", which reached no. 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 and no.12 in the UK a year later. Hartman also co-wrote the James Brown US no.1 and UK Top 5 hit "Living in America".
Links to Peel[]
Hartman performed his song I Can Dream About You on Top of the Pops on 29 August 1985, co-presented by Peel and Janice Long. At the end of the performance Peel commented, "That's Dan Hartman, good bloke".
He would have seen Hartman perform as bassist for the Edgar Winter Group when he attended a gig at White City in the early 70s, which, in his Singles Review for 'Free Ride' in August 1973, he described as a "mindless display of over worked cliches and relentless geeble gimmickry", and on listening to the record found it hard to believe, "that this is the same group". The song had been written solely by Hartman who also sang lead vocals. Follow up single, 'Hangin' Around', co-written by Hartman and Winter, was also praised by Peel in a subsequent review in February 1974.
Peel played James Brown's hit 'Living in America', co-written by Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight, and featuring Hartman on rhythm guitar, synthesizers and backing vocals, on its release in January 1986. Later in the year he played the track 'Gravity' by Brown, also written by Hartman & Midnight, commenting: "I suppose it's the most obvious thing to say that I could have done with a bit more James Brown and a bit less Dan Hartman, but that's the new single 'Gravity', taken from a forthcoming LP, I suppose it's better than nothing." Hartman produced and co-wrote all the tracks on the album of the same name.
Sessions[]
Shows Played[]
- I Can Dream About You - 29 August 1985 (TOTP)