Billy Joel's New Single (No, Really, He Has New Music Out In 2024...)

[elsongs]

I was just about to go to sleep and I saw "Billy Joel" trend on Twitter. Clicked to see what was going on. He has a new song out. WAIT, WHAT!?!? BILLY JOEL HAS A NEW SONG OUT?!?!
AFTER 30 YEARS BILLY JOEL HAS RELEASED A NEW SONG?!?!?

Here it is - "Turn The Lights Back On"

My first impressions are below the YouTube embed. 
 

First impressions: I'm kinda torn here -- As a songwriter (and Billy Joel was one of my big musical inspirations growing up), I think it's a lovely tune - not groundbreaking, but nice. And his older, more "gruff" sounding vocals are somewhat of a nod to his big inspiration, Ray Charles, who had a similar gruff-ness in his latter work. 

But as an audio geek, bleh - what a horrible, overcompressed mix with little dynamics. And there's no low or high end whatsoever...

[Ivan May]

You listen to the song Turn The Lights Back On, and you notice that Billy Joel's voice has never changed. But don't count on him making any new music: Joel said that he retired from making albums after 1993's River Of Dreams, though obviously he will continue to make hit singles and EPs, just not full length albums.

 

Hell, after seeing this post, I think I should give The Stranger a little spin or two! Thanks for posting this @elsongs

[jazzpiano88]

It’s a nice song that really features a youthful sounding vocal to my ears.    
i agree about the sound quality.  It’s a sign of the times of consumers expecting lo-fi out of their phones.  
 

Glad he is back (hopefully with more) — probably has some good material flowing with all of the craziness in the world. 

[BluMunk]

Agree... nice tune, lovely voice, and an ear-assaulting production.

[David R]

The vocals in the first verse, before they get buried in the mix, remind me of Tumbleweed Connection-era Elton. It’s nice to hear Billy singing honestly, and not doing one of his impressions.

 

I went poking around for the credits. Produced by Freddy Wexler (Ariana Grande, Bieber), and a total of four writers. I doubt Billy really needed the assist but if working with younger writers/producers is giving him the inspiration he lacked alone, good for everyone. My less generous instinct is that it’s a calculated move by Columbia Records, either to get their writers some more royalty points or to boost the algorithmic relevance by having younger artists associated with the track.

 

Anyway, it’s nice to have new music from Billy, though it doesn’t affect his catalogue that much for better or worse. I’m curious if there’s more to come or if this was a one-off.

[HammondDave]

Bottom line... It's a beautiful song with an excellent story, and passionately performed.  

 

That's certainly good enough for me.  Thanks, Billy.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

1 hour ago, David R said:

The vocals in the first verse, before they get buried in the mix, remind me of Tumbleweed Connection-era Elton. It’s nice to hear Billy singing honestly, and not doing one of his impressions.

My wife also was hearing early Elton in the vocal, which is cool because a lot of the vocals way back on Piano Man remind me of Tumbleweed Connection (I know Billy spent a long time trying to shake the Elton comparisons, to moderate, but not total, success).

 

The only thing really getting under my skin with the production is the vocal. His performance is great, there's just this warbly thing going on (someone leaving the pitch correction plugin on at slightly too high a level in mixing?) that I hear a LOT on older male rockers' vocals from the past 10 or 15 years (certainly Mick's vocals on the new Stones stuff, and Paul McCartney's more recent output), and it drives me insane. I'm not sure what the goal is there. It didn't make Leon Russell sound better on The Union back in 2010, sort of feels like making sure the pitch was 100% spot on misses the point of his style.

 

That gripe aside, I'm definitely curious about the writing process and how much of it was collaboration, and who else played on the track. I'm certainly interested what brought this on, and if there will be more. I owe so much of my musical upbringing to Billy Joel, and I'm thrilled that he felt motivated to write and release something new, since that's been an exceedingly rare treat since 1993.

[Threadslayer]

First impression: Sounds old fashioned

Second impression: AI command "Create a pop ballad in the style of Billy Joel circa 1970-1990"

[MathOfInsects]

Ugh.

[MathOfInsects]

36 minutes ago, Threadslayer said:

First impression: Sounds old fashioned

Second impression: AI command "Create a pop ballad in the style of Billy Joel circa 1970-1990"

Same.

I know it's not the most popular opinion, but I view his story as a damned tragedy. He seemed to have such promise as a Carole King-style songwriter, and then instead just put out this series of novelty records, one after the next, on which the standout songs were always the ones that turned out to be from his Carole King period. Maybe the novelty guy was always who he was and the Carole King period was him doing a novelty record as Carole King, which happened to be when he hit. And no denying he's one of the most successful songwriters of the age. But every time I heard one of his "fame"-era records, it just sounded like running from himself or something. All that weird vocal shit and overbearing "I'm totally a rocker! Ignore the piano you see before you!" posturing. Yet when he just sits and plays songs, they're always awesome. 

[Docbop]

Meh     Sounds like he sampled himself but didn't change things enough to be something new other than the lyrics.   His voice just sounded old, not like older singers who finding new ways to use aging voice.   I'm sure he doesn't need the money so probably just trying to keep is name in people memories. 

[danskeys]

I'm a sucker for this stuff having grown up wanting nothing more than to be Billy Joel or Elton John or both.  (Sadly, none of those options happened!)  So I enjoyed listening to that.  But yes, the compression is really off the charts, and so unnecessarily so!  Could have been much better if he recorded it more in the style of the Cold Spring Harbor album.

[David R]

Bass, Drum  Machine, Keyboards, Percussion, Synthesizer, Composer, Lyricist, Engineer, Producer, Vocal  Producer: Freddy Wexler
Composer, Lyricist: Arthur Lafrentz Bacon
Composer, Lyricist: Wayne Hector
Associated  Performer, Piano, Strings: Marco Parisi
Associated  Performer: David Campbell
Bass, Guitar, Engineer: Leroy Clampitt
Programmer, Engineer: Jack Parisi
Drums: Randy Cooke
Violin: Benjamin Jacobson
Violin: Tereza Stanislav
Viola: Luke Maurer
Cello: Vanessa Freebairn-Smith
Co- Producer: PARISI
Unknown, Engineer: Emile Haynie
Engineer: Dan Glashauser
Engineer: Cian Riordan
Engineer: Kyle Mann
Engineer: Travis Warner
Engineer: Justin Gariano
Mixing  Engineer: Tom Elmhirst
Mastering  Engineer: Randy Merrill

[BluMunk]

Interesting... is this a first time for Joel writing a song with 3 other people?

[SamuelBLupowitz]

59 minutes ago, BluMunk said:

Interesting... is this a first time for Joel writing a song with 3 other people?

I think it is, and also an unusual (but not unprecedented) move for him to work without any of his touring musicians. That was a big sticking point for him early in his career, and caused him to reject producers as established as James William Guercio and Sir George Martin. But he shook up his band a lot for the Storm Front album in 1989, and aquiesced to working with Danny Kortchmar's chosen players for a lot of The River of Dreams. At this point in his ongoing "I'm just going to play from the same catalog of songs that came out between 1973 and 1993" performing career, I admire him trying new things, regardless of the outcome. It can be exciting to hear an established artist get uncomfortable, though in this case the result does have most of the marks of a Billy Joel Ballad.

 

I had seen elsewhere that the Parisi guys were involved with this; they were heavily endorsing ROLI products and the Seaboard in particular for awhile. 

 

I wonder if this is a Billy Joel-led project, or if the track had some other history before he got involved. I am curious what inspired him to put out a song now. Though he is wrapping up his extended residency at Madison Square Garden, so maybe he was looking for something new?

[Montunoman 2]

1 hour ago, David R said:

Bass, Drum  Machine, Keyboards, Percussion, Synthesizer, Composer, Lyricist, Engineer, Producer, Vocal  Producer: Freddy Wexler
Composer, Lyricist: Arthur Lafrentz Bacon
Composer, Lyricist: Wayne Hector
Associated  Performer, Piano, Strings: Marco Parisi
Associated  Performer: David Campbell
Bass, Guitar, Engineer: Leroy Clampitt
Programmer, Engineer: Jack Parisi
Drums: Randy Cooke
Violin: Benjamin Jacobson
Violin: Tereza Stanislav
Viola: Luke Maurer
Cello: Vanessa Freebairn-Smith
Co- Producer: PARISI
Unknown, Engineer: Emile Haynie
Engineer: Dan Glashauser
Engineer: Cian Riordan
Engineer: Kyle Mann
Engineer: Travis Warner
Engineer: Justin Gariano
Mixing  Engineer: Tom Elmhirst
Mastering  Engineer: Randy Merrill

I wonder why Liberty Divito isn’t in drums? 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

7 minutes ago, Montunoman 2 said:

I wonder why Liberty Divito isn’t in drums? 

Oh, Billy and Liberty had a falling out in the early 2000s over some business/money stuff (and disagreements over certain members of the band, if the gossip I hear is correct). Lib hasn't played with him for more than 20 years at this point; it's been Chuck Burgi on drums in his touring band since the Buy My Box Set tour in 2006. A shame; Liberty was a huge part of Billy's sound, and the longest-serving member of his band up until that point (the only holdover from the old band when Billy cleaned house in the 80s). 

[MathOfInsects]

is it just me, or does the chorus sound just like "Died In Your Arms Tonight"?

[AUSSIEKEYS]

Thanks elsongs for showing us this & perfect timing as I'll learn this for an upcoming gig in a few weeks.

 

Thanks Billy & give us a few more new songs where you're still behind a piano.

 

Thats what i love about this forum is you find stuff you may not have found yourself so quickly. Man this was just released and I heard it here first.

[ElmerJFudd]

Nicely done. There’s millions of songs in the world and that right there is a Billy Joel song.  

[Kawai James]

3 hours ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

I had seen elsewhere that the Parisi guys were involved with this; they were heavily endorsing ROLI products and the Seaboard in particular for awhile.

 

Well spotted, I was just about to make the same observation.
Marco Parisi is a phenomenal musician, and an excellent ambassador for ROLI products.

[drawback]

6 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

Same.

I know it's not the most popular opinion, but I view his story as a damned tragedy. He seemed to have such promise as a Carole King-style songwriter, and then instead just put out this series of novelty records, one after the next, on which the standout songs were always the ones that turned out to be from his Carole King period. Maybe the novelty guy was always who he was and the Carole King period was him doing a novelty record as Carole King, which happened to be when he hit. And no denying he's one of the most successful songwriters of the age. But every time I heard one of his "fame"-era records, it just sounded like running from himself or something. All that weird vocal shit and overbearing "I'm totally a rocker! Ignore the piano you see before you!" posturing. Yet when he just sits and plays songs, they're always awesome. 

I get this. I’m of the age where his stuff really came on like a vindication of what I was into at the time. But there was a point where I just lost it for him. It was like I didn’t believe him anymore (and there were others, too). I appreciate him… and that’s about all I can say. 

[elsongs]

4 hours ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

Oh, Billy and Liberty had a falling out in the early 2000s over some business/money stuff (and disagreements over certain members of the band, if the gossip I hear is correct). Lib hasn't played with him for more than 20 years at this point; it's been Chuck Burgi on drums in his touring band since the Buy My Box Set tour in 2006. A shame; Liberty was a huge part of Billy's sound, and the longest-serving member of his band up until that point (the only holdover from the old band when Billy cleaned house in the 80s). 

Billy and Liberty have made up and are on good terms again in recent years, and in fact Billy Joel wrote the foreword to Liberty's recent memoir book.  For the longest time (no pun intended) DeVitto didn't want to have anything to do with Billy Joel's music, but in recent interviews he's been talking about how he came up with the rhythms to iconic Billy Joel tunes.

https://www.thethings.com/did-billy-joel-scam-former-drummer-liberty-devitto-royalties-lawsuit/

[danskeys]

Anyone else hear Morning Has Broken (Cat Stevens) in there during the chorus?

[Redknife]

People magazine article -released at the same time as the album. The lyrics are described as having a double meaning - the obvious interpretation and a salute to Billy Joel Fans in recognition of the long time since he released a song. The article also quotes Billy talking about how tortured he was after River of Dreams didn’t hit like he thought it would. 
I think it’s a well crafted tune and I like that he is more reserved in singing style than some of his later works. He’s unique, that’s for sure, I hear references to his earlier songs which may be just his stylistic traits.

[elsongs]

Oh yeah, if anyone's curious:

(In 6/8)

|C    C/E  |F      |G     |E   E7/G#  |Am    |D/F#    |C/G    G   |F   C/E :||  

For pretty much the whole song except the instrumental bridge which is:

|Am    |D  D/F# |G    |C   C/E  |F  Am |Gsus4 G  |F  Am  |Gsus4  G  |    

[schmalex]

What a wonderful surprise to see Billy Joel writing some new songs!  I think the mix is only odd in some of these online videos. To my ears his voice stands out a lot more on Apple Music.

 

I really like it regardless. Definitely a throw back sound to a younger more soulful Billy Joel before his whole 80s Doo-wop phase.

 

I saw him in concert last year, and he and his band sounded absolutely incredible and I remember thinking he had better write some new songs, because he still had so much talent on display.  Billy's voice has held up remarkably well for his age.

[o0Ampy0o]

6 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

is it just me, or does the chorus sound just like "Died In Your Arms Tonight"?

 

2 hours ago, danskeys said:

Anyone else hear Morning Has Broken (Cat Stevens) in there during the chorus?

 

 

A little of those and understandably some She's Always A Woman.

 

His voice sounds pretty good at this stage in his life. When he takes flight with some verses he sounds as good as ever. But at other times he also sounds a little labored/bored? The lyrics would benefit from a little rhyming and/or poetic pairing here and there. As it is, I suspect he could have sung it better after perfecting it on tour and then making sure he was fresh and excited to do it for the studio recording. 

[schmalex]

1 hour ago, elsongs said:

Oh yeah, if anyone's curious:

(In 6/8)

|C    C/E  |F      |G     |E   E7/G#  |Am    |D/F#    |C/G    G   |F   C/E :||  

For pretty much the whole song except the instrumental bridge which is:

|Am    |D  D/F# |G    |C   C/E  |F  Am |Gsus4 G  |F  Am  |Gsus4  G  |    

The sheet music is out now as well... https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1470962/Product.aspx

[retrokeys]

i saw BillyJoel in 1974 right after the release of "Steetlife Serenadfe"  To this day, the tightest five piece band I ever heard and I only paid.three bucks for floor seats no less.

The performance was full of youth, fire, performance ,and attitude. His sign off was "don't take any shit from anyone."

 

This tune reminds me that a lot of water had flowed under the bridge since then. It is the song of a grown man singing in a man's voice. Thanks Bill for keeping it real..