River of Dreams is the twelfth and final studio album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released on August 10, 1993. River of Dreams presented a more serious tone than found in Joel's previous albums, dealing with issues such as trust and long-lasting love. It was rumored that the themes of trust and betrayal, particularly certain lyrics from the songs "A Minor Variation" and "The Great Wall of China", stem from Joel's legal disputes with his former manager and ex-brother-in-law, Frank Weber, who reportedly embezzled millions of dollars from Joel and used dubious accounting practices to cover it up. Since the release of the album, Joel has eschewed recording studio albums as a performer, but continues to tour, record occasional singles and released a classical album featuring solo piano performed by Hyung-ki "Richard" Joo titled Fantasies & Delusions in 2001. The album cover was a painting by Joel's then-wife, Christie Brinkley. In 1993, Rolling Stone gave her the Top Picks award for "The Best Album Cover of the Year". The music video for the title track has over 25 million views on YouTube as of July 25, 2019.
Background
In the summer of 1992, Billy Joel held a series of writing and recording sessions on Shelter Island, New York; these sessions eventually produced seven tracks, self-produced by Joel. Joel was dissatisfied with the results, and so, on the recommendation of Don Henley, he brought in session guitarist Danny Kortchmar for another take on the songs. Kortchmar agreed to produce, provided he be allowed to use session musicians on the recordings, to which Joel agreed. Only one song from the Shelter Island sessions, "Shades of Grey", would make the final album in its original produced form.
Track listing
All songs were written and composed by Billy Joel. ;Side one
A Voyage on the River of Dreams is an Australian 3-CD box set released in 1994, which includes the studio album, River of Dreams, along with a 6-track live CD from the '93–'94 River of Dreams Tour, plus a Questions & Answers CD recorded at Princeton University. This box set made the charts in Australia and New Zealand, the only places besides Japan where the set was officially released. Disc one – as per original album Disc two All songs written and composed by Billy Joel, except where noted
Curtis Rance King, Jr. – choir conductor and contractor
Choir on "All About Soul" – Phillip Ballou, Katreese Barnes, Dennis Collins, Will Downing, Frank Floyd, Diane Garisto, Stephanie James, Devora Johnson, Marlon Saunders and Corliss Stafford
Technical Support – Andrew Baker*, Lester Baylinson, Steve Bramberg, Laura Delia, Jon "J.D." Dworkow*, Greg Garland, Peter Goodrich, David Hewitt, Dave Hofbauer, Doug Kleeger, Howie Mendelson, Larry DeMarco, Artie Smith and Courtney Spencer.
River of Dreams stands as Billy Joel's most recent studio album of original pop material. Joel has often stated that the album was designed to stand as his final record and that while he still composes music, he no longer writes within the pop music vein and has no more interest in the recording industry. Accordingly, Joel's succeeding one-off studio album Fantasies & Delusions which was released in 2001 was an instrumental album of classical piano pieces containing no pop songs whatsoever. However, there is currently a petition online at Change.org created by a group of Billy Joel fans asking him to put out at least one more studio album with new songs of original materials in the pop/rock genre.
