One big surprise last night at Billy Joel’s finale residency show at Madison Square Garden: he didn’t include his new 2024 song, “Turn the Lights Back On.’
Billy seems to have turned the lights back off.
The Piano Man hasn’t performed his new song in his last three shows, not since June 8th at the Garden.
“Turn the Lights Back On” was introduced to great fanfare this past winner. It was Billy’s first new song in 30 years, written by Freddie Wexler as kind of a Joel tribute.
The single went right to the top of the charts, and Billy featured it on his NBC TV special. Everyone loved hearing Billy Joel singing something new, but “Lights” felt a lot like it came from AI.
That Billy didn’t sing it at his final Garden show seems very meaningful. The show had 26 numbers including two we don’t hear all the time — “Zanzibar” (my favorite), and “This is the Time,” which is never heard but Joel said it was requested by his wife, Alexis. The show ran almost three hours, so “Lights” could have been done.
Is the new song old news? I guess we’ll see when Billy hits the road this fall in shows featuring Sting, Rod Stewart, and Chris Isaak.
