Today (August 28th) marks the 27th anniversary of Billy Joel's last studio album --River Of Dreams-- topping the Billboard album charts. River Of Dreams, the "Piano Man's" 12th album, was released on August 10th, 1993 and spent three weeks at Number One -- between August 28th and September 17th -- when it was knocked out of the top spot byGarth Brooks'In Pieces.River Of Dreams' cover was painted by Billy's then wife,Christie Brinkley and snagged Rolling Stone's"Top Picks" award for "Best Album Cover Of The Year." To date, the album has sold over five million copies in the U.S. alone.
River Of Dreams, which was Billy's last work completed during his marriage to Brinkley, touched upon their relationship on "Blonde Over Blue," their pending split on his song for their daughter Alexa, "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)," and his contempt for his former brother-in-law and crooked ex-manager Frank Weber on "The Great Wall Of China."
The album spawned four singles, the Top Three "The River Of Dreams"; "All About Soul," which hit Number 29; "No Man's Land," which peaked at Number 18 onBillboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart; and "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel), which reached Number 18 onBillboard's Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks list.
River Of Dreams was nominated for four Grammys the following year, including the coveted Album Of The Year, with the title track garnering nominations for Song Of The Year, Record Of The Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance. Ultimately, Billy went home empty handed that year.
The only thing he's recorded since was one album of classical music.
In 1993, Billy Joel released the River of Dreams album on August 10th by Columbia Records. Go behind the scenes with Billy and learn about the songwriting and recording process behind the album. Watch this video:
Photo: Getty Images