The River of Dreams

This article is about the Billy Joel song. For the album, see River of Dreams. For other uses, see River of Dreams (disambiguation).

"The River of Dreams"
Single by Billy Joel
from the album River of Dreams
B-side"The Great Wall of China"
ReleasedJuly 19, 1993 (1993-07-19)[1]
Genre
Length
  • 4:05 (original version)
  • 5:21 (extended version)
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Billy Joel
Producer(s)
Billy Joel singles chronology
"All Shook Up"
(1992) 		"The River of Dreams"
(1993) 		"No Man's Land"
(1993)
Music video
"The River of Dreams" on YouTube

"The River of Dreams" is a song by American musician Billy Joel. It is the title track and first single from his twelfth album, River of Dreams (1993). It was released in July 1993 by Columbia Records and became a hit, peaking at number three on the US and UK charts, making it Joel's best-charting single of the decade as well as his final top ten in either country to date. It also hit the top spot in Australia, New Zealand, and on the Canadian and US Adult Contemporary charts. The song was produced by Joe Nicolo and Danny Kortchmar. Its accompanying music video was directed by Andy Morahan and filmed in Connecticut, the US.

At least four versions of the song have been recorded and released. Two versions (released years later) include a bridge section containing a piano interlude paralleling Joel's melody from his song "Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)," which is from the same album. These versions can be found on the boxed sets My Lives and Complete Hits Collection: 1973–1999 – but even these versions differ from each other, both in length and in arrangement: one, for instance, has more percussion. A fourth mix appears as a bonus cut on the UK CD single of "River of Dreams" — the "percapella mix" done by Nicolo.

"The River of Dreams" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1994, but lost out to "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston. Joel performed the song at the ceremony, and abruptly stopped in the middle of his performance in order to verbally protest Frank Sinatra's lifetime achievement speech being cut off earlier in the night.[3]

In 1993, Gary Zimmerman, a songwriter from Long Island, New York, attempted to sue Joel for ten million dollars, claiming more than half of "The River of Dreams" was based on his 1986 song "Nowhere Land."[4] Joel said he had no knowledge of Zimmerman or his music, and Zimmerman dropped the lawsuit in 1994.[5]

  1. ^ "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. July 17, 1993. p. 19.
  2. ^ a b Molanphy, Chris (April 30, 2020). "Still Billy Joel to Me Edition". Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia (Podcast). Slate. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  3. ^ Harrington, Richard (March 2, 1994). "THE GRAMMY WHAMMY". Washington Post. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  4. ^ "Songwriter Says He Lit Creative Fire Under Joel – Deseret News". Deseret News. August 12, 1993. Archived from the original on June 25, 2018.
  5. ^ "Songwriter Drops Fruitless Suit Against Billy Joel". Deseret News. August 27, 1994. Archived from the original on October 26, 2016.