Billy Joel Announces His First New Song In 17 Years, 'Turn The Lights Back On'

We bet this wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card for 2024: Billy Joel is releasing his first new single in 17 years next week.

Joel began teasing the possibility of new music in late December. Last year, the Piano Man singer joined TikTok, and for his first video on the platform, he posted a clip from his concert at Madison Square Garden, where he addressed the crowd and hinted at “a little something” he’d been cooking up in the studio.

“I have good news, I have bad news,” he said, “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.”

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Billy has some good news and bad news. Stay tuned for more! - Team Joel

♬ original sound - Billy Joel

Joel then changed his social media headers to show the phrase “Did I wait too long…..”

This morning, Joel officially announced his new single, Turn The Lights Back On, and shared a little snippet of the track that’s due to land on Thursday, 1 February.

The little teaser offers up classic Billy Joel by the piano, evoking all the emotions inside us with his poignant playing. You can watch the announcement video below.

You can pre-order / pre-save Turn The Lights Back On here.

Turn The Lights Back On has been described as a “classic Billy Joel-style tune, embodying the hallmarks of his signature sound and ushering in the next chapter of his story,” per Rolling Stone.

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard new music from Billy Joel, with the American artist content with touring off the back of his already impressive catalogue. The last album related to Joel was 2001’s Fantasies & Delusions, which saw British Korean pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo playing classical tunes on the piano composed by Joel.

The only taste of new music following that release were Joel’s two 2007 songs, All My Life and Christmas In Fallujah, with the latter starring Cass Dillon on lead vocals. Joel released his last traditional pop album, River Of Dreams, in 1993.

Joel returned to Australia for a one-off performance at the MCG in December 2022. He was joined by special guest Tina Arena.

The Music reviewer Guido Farnell said Joel’s voice was “as commanding as ever” and that “age has not diminished his capacity to deliver a red-hot live show”.

Farnell added: “Tonight is a joyous celebration of Joel and his career. He is a consummate entertainer who has crafted a fine body of work that has been engineered to have the broadest possible appeal. Thousands of people leave the MCG beaming and looking very satisfied.”

You can read the full review here.

Billy Joel was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1999. He received both The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and the once-in-a-century ASCAP Centennial Award in 2014. In 2018, the Library of Congress chose Piano Man for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its historic significance. 

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