Billy Joel to release first pop single in 30 years

NEW YORK — Billy Joel is in a new music state of mind.

The piano-playing legend from Long Island is set to release his first new pop single in 30 years next week, he hinted Monday, previewing the song with a brief teaser he published on social media.

In 2007, Joel released “All My Life,” a jazzy number with whiffs of Frank Sinatra.

He has otherwise steered clear of new music — outside of classical releases — for the last three decades, even as he has often performed concerts and established a long-running residency at Madison Square Garden.

Joel stopped releasing pop music in 1993 after he released “River of Dreams,” a rich and eclectic rock album that fittingly finished with a song titled “Famous Last Words.”

Joel, 74, may yet have some words to sing. According to a news release, the new song, titled “Turn the Lights On,” includes the lyric “Did I wait too long … to turn the lights back on?”

In a video Joel posted on social media teasing the song, his hand appears to turn a notebook page that is scrawled with faded lyrics and titled “Famous Last Words.”

Joel, wearing a dark suit, then appears, tickling a tune on a piano in a shadowy room. The post says the song will arrive Feb. 1.

Joel, a six-time Grammy Award winner, is scheduled to end his Madison Square Garden residency in July.