Like a warm, loving hug from an old friend bridging a great divide, Billy Joel returned to the pop mainstay on Thursday morning (February 1) with his first new lyrical single in nearly 20 years, “Turn the Lights Back On .” The title says it all, as the wistful, swinging piano ballad feels like a continuation of an intimate conversation Piano Man has had with his fans for nearly six decades.
“Nothing's different, we've been here before/ Walking these halls, trying to talk/ Above the silence,” Joel, 74, sings in a powerful voice over his familiar, warm piano. “And pride sticks out its tongue/ Laughs at the portrait/ What we've become/ Stuck in a frame, unable to change,” he continues in lines that suggest we must struggle with accepting ourselves as we are.
The song was produced by Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer Freddy Wexler (Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande) and written by Joel, Wexler, Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector. Joel will perform the song live for the first time at Sunday's (Feb. 4) 2024 Grammy Awards, which air on CBS at 8 p.m. ET.
“Turn the Lights Back On” is Joel's first lyrical pop effort since the release of 2007's Sinatra-esque ballad “All My Life,” which he co-wrote with then-wife Katie Lee. the song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart. Joel's last album of brand new pop music was in 1993 River of dreams.
The singer, who has had 33 top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, teased that he was coming out of his long pop hibernation during a Dec. 19 show in the middle of his historic Madison Square Garden home. “I've got good news. I've got bad NEWS. I'll tell you the bad news first. We have nothing new to play for you,” he told the crowd. “The good news is you don't have to sit in front of something you have no idea what it is. . Although we have something we're working on, you might hear about it at some point.”
The chorus of “Lights” pays tribute to the inexorable passage of time, with a suggestion of regret that we waited too long to say or do the things we meant, as Joel sings, “I'm late, but I'm here this moment/ Though I was a romantic/ Somehow I forgot/ Time can make you blind/ But I see you now/ As we lay in the dark/ Did I wait long?/ To turn the lights back on.”
At the time of publication, there was still no word on whether “Lights” is a single or marks Joel's return to releasing pop albums. In 2014, Joel told the New Yorker who felt he had said it all. “Some people think it's because I'm lazy or just contrary,” he said. “But, no, I think it's just—I spoke my mind. If I put an album out now, it would probably sell pretty well because of who I am, but that's no reason to do it. I would like it to be good.”
However, in an earlier 2007 interview with Advertising sign, Joel left the door a little open. “I don't rule out the possibility of writing songs again,” he said a few months after the release of the single “All My Life”. “I guess if I had the motivation to write a song, I wouldn't stop myself from doing it. I just haven't felt the compulsion to write songs in a pop format. I guess these days I just think of myself as a composer.” His most recent album was a collection of his classics, Fantasies & Hallucinationswhich was released on Sony Classical in 2001.
While he hasn't released a new pop album, Joel has continued to perform his favorite hits on the road, which he'll be hitting this spring and summer with old friend Stevie Nicks for a series of US stadium shows.
Watch the lyric video for Joel's “Turn the Lights Back On” below.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/billy-joel-returns-pop-turn-the-lights-back-on-listen-1235594956/