Billy Joel Announces First New Pop Song in 17 Years
“Turn The Lights Back On” comes out February 1st
Some good news for 2024: Billy Joel will be releasing his first new pop single in 17 years on February 1st.
The tune, entitled “Turn The Lights Back On,” promises to be a “classic Billy Joel-style tune, embodying the hallmarks of his signature sound and ushering in the next chapter of his story” according to the press release on his official website.
In the lyrics, he asks, “Did I wait too long… to turn the lights back on?” The 30-second video posted on his socials depicts Joel looking at a page with the lyrics to “Famous Last Words,” the final song on his last proper pop album, 1993’s River of Dreams, before playing the melancholy opening notes to the new single, his first since 2007’s “All My Life” / “Christmas in Fallujah.”
“Turn The Lights Back On” was produced by Freddy Wexler, who has worked with the likes of Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Blackpink, P!nk, Lil Wayne, Selena Gomez and Celine Dion among others. It was written by Wexler, Arthur Bacon, Wayne Hector and Joel himself.
Joel initially dropped a clue about possible new material late last year onstage at Madison Square Garden, where he’ll be winding down his decade-long monthly residency at the famed New York City venue this coming July 25th.
“I have good news and bad news,” he told fans in attendance, the video of which would become Joel’s first post on his new TikTok account. “I’ll give you the bad news first. We don’t have anything new to play for you. The good news is you don’t have to sit through something you have no idea what it is. Although, we got a little something we’re working on you might hear sometime.”
The Hicksville, NY native, who turns 75 in May, will be playing the Tokyo Dome in Japan on Wednesday, and will return to the United States for a string of “One Night Only” stadium shows with Sting and Stevie Nicks over the summer.
No news at press time as to whether or not Joel has more songs beyond “Turn The Lights Back On” in the hopper. But according to an interview the songwriter conducted with Rolling Stone in 2019, he admits he’s always writing new material, just not recording it.
“I have a lot of music that no one’s ever heard and no one may ever hear if I don’t decide to do something with it,” he said. “It’s really about the creative process that’s important to me, not about having records on the charts or selling a lot of recordings. I’m learning all the time, and you never stop learning. That’s what’s good about the writing process. You always learn something new whenever you create.”
The last album Joel released as his debut foray into classical music, 2001’s Fantasies and Delusions, which was composed by the “My Life” singer and performed by British-Korean pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo.
“Turn The Lights Back On” will be released by Columbia Records on 7-inch vinyl and across all digital platforms.
No news on the single’s flipside just yet.
VIDEO: “Turn The Lights Back On” official teaser
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Huge Billy fan, but I’m not gonna lie. I’m frightened.
Maybe “Now and Then” inspired Billy to release a late in life single? I don’t know.
“Now and Then” is pretty good, but I don’t know that anyone will ever consider it “classic Beatles.”
In Billy’s case, he went out on top with a #1 album: it doesn’t seem to get as much attention as, say The Stranger or maybe some othets, but I think River of Dreams is a gem and absolutely one of Billy’s best albums. It’s certainly one I listen to the most.
But he said he didn’t see himself getting any better, and walked away from recording and releasing new music. I don’t know what to expect here. I want to be excited, but I just hope it doesn’t suck.
Maybe, like “Now and Then” it’ll be pretty good, but nothing too exciting. It’ll just exist, be an interesting new listen, and then kind of forgotten a couple of months later. Probably nothing anyone will hold up to his earlier works, no matter which era of Billy you prefer.
I’d be more excited for a new album. I wish he’d taken Rick Rubin up a number of years back when he expressed interest in producing him. That might’ve been something.
I just hope this doesn’t suck.