Reba Rambo's 1980 classic 'Dreamin'' Reissued Digitally!

SONY LEGACY RE-RELEASES REBA RAMBO’S DREAMIN’ FOR 44th ANNIVERSARY

In the year that marks its forty-fourth anniversary, Sony Legacy will be releasing Grammy and Dove Award-winning Reba Rambo’s 1980 album Dreamin’ to digital outlets for the first time. Remastered from the original master tapes by Greg Hand, the album will be available for download/streaming on May 31. (TODAY!)

By 1980, Reba Rambo was one of the premiere artists in contemporary Christian music. Since her 1976 breakthrough release, Lady, she’d accumulated two Grammy nominations, a Dove Award and three additional nominations from the Gospel Music Association. Mainstream publications had written about her broader commercial potential beyond the CCM market, comparing her to Barbra Steisand and Diana Ross. On the heels of her critically acclaimed 1979 album, The Prodigal...According to Reba, she sought to break new ground at the advent of the eighties.

Dreamin’ was recorded at Nashville’s Sound Stage Studio, produced by Phil Johnson (Andrus, Blackwood & Co., Dallas Holm and Praise) and Dony McGuire (The Bill Gaither Trio, The Archers, Mark Lowry), and released in the spring of 1980, the first of three albums she would release that year, one of which would include the Grammy Award-winning musical, The Lord’s Prayer.

Reba being interviewed circa 1980 (Photo courtesy of Reba Rambo’s personal archive)

Backed by some of Nashville’s most seasoned session players, including Larrie London (Elvis Presley, Barbara Mandrell, Shirley Caesar), Steve Schaffer (Jerry Reed, Amy Grant, Tanya Tucker), Shane Keister (Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Crystal Gayle) and Farrell Morris (Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez, Conway Twitty), Reba utilized Dreamin’ to further push the boundaries of what contemporary Christian music could sound like, exploring disco, rhythm and blues, jazz-influenced pop sounds as well as musical theater.

Dreamin’ contains Reba’s version of “Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (recorded by Andraé Crouch on the The Lord’s Prayer), the radio single “Something About the Rain” and the innovative “Dressing Room Sketch,” described by Contemporary Christian Music magazine as “a nearly 11-minute segment of music and dialogue [that] is alone worth the price of the album.”

Upon its release, Contemporary Christian Music magazine declared the album “as musically satisfying as anything she’s ever done” and that it “may be her best yet.” Cash Box described it as a “very pop, jazzy-type album with super smooth production.” Record World agreed, writing, “Reba is synonymous with great songs and dynamic performances. This LP proves no exception.”

The reissue sports a refreshed front cover by renowned designer John Sellards, whose credits include reissue packages by The Supremes, Johnny Mathis, and Liza Minnelli among others.

Reba has earned a Grammy Award, three Dove Awards and has been inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame as a member of The Rambos. Her songs have been recorded by Amy Grant, Sandi Patty, Natalie Cole, Debby Boone, Donna Summer, Cynthia Clawson, the Gaither Vocal Band, Michael English, Mark Lowry, The Nelons and many more. She is currently in production on her first solo album since 1982. She is also completing Rambo Women, an album recorded in collaboration with her daughter, Destiny Rambo Khouri, produced by Joel Khouri (John Mark McMillan, Josh Baldwin, Matrimony).

To download/stream Dreamin’, click here!

My brand new interview with Reba for the God’s Music Is My Life podcast is now LIVE! Listen below!

You can also read more about Reba in my 2021 feature about her Grammy-nominated 1982 release, Lady Live.

Industry veteran Dusty Wells and I also interviewed Reba in 2020 when her other 1980 release, Confessions, was digitally reissued in conjunction with the album’s 40th anniversary. Watch below!