Flying in a Blue Dream

This is the third studio album, released by Relativity on 30 October 1989 as 88561-1015-2. Its eighteen tracks are more than any other Satriani album carries, the 28-track double Time Machine aside. It reached number 23 on the Billboard 200, stayed 39 weeks, made the top 40 in three other countries and was certified Gold on 25 January 1990. Four singles reached Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart: One Big Rush and Big Bad Moon both at number 17, Back To Shalla-Bal at 31 and I Believe at 36. It is also the first album on which Satriani sings, on Can't Slow Down, Strange, I Believe, Big Bad Moon, The Phone Call and Ride. He plays a Deering six-string banjo-style guitar for the first time here - The Feeling is performed entirely on it - and harmonica as well. Headless is a remake of The Headless Horseman from Not of This Earth, with distorted vocals, harmonica and a squawky guitar tone that makes chicken-like sounds. Making it was not easy. Speaking to MusicRadar in 2014, Satriani called the writing and recording a very stressful time: it was just so difficult and insane, he said, but there was also an enormous amount of creativity, and he was so excited that he had fans. His father died in 1989 while the album was being recorded, and the record is often said to carry that. The Bells of Lal (Part One) was used in the 1996 film Sling Blade. The album was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1991 Grammy Awards, his third nomination.