Billy Joel sets date for final Madison Square Garden residency show

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that finally ends: Billy Joel on Thursday announced the 104th and final concert in his unprecedented Madison Square Garden monthly residency will take place on July 25. It will be his 150th overall lifetime show at the arena.

General-public tickets for the concert go on sale Nov. 10 at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster.com.

The Hicksville-raised Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, 74,  made no public comment about the end of his more than decadelong residency that kicked off on Jan. 27, 2014.

He told media in June that his 150th career performance at the Garden will wrap up his residency, the venue’s first and only such monthly run by a performer. “I’m kind of flabbergasted that it lasted long as it did,” he said. “My team tells me that we can continue to sell tickets but …. I don’t know — 150 shows, 10 years — it’s like, ‘All right already!’ ”

In January 2015, the 13th show of the residency broke the Garden record for “most consecutive performances by any artist” at the venue and a banner reading “Joel — 13” was raised to the rafters. Joel’s 65th lifetime show in July 2015 set another Garden record, for “most lifetime performances by any artist,” celebrated with a second banner. Both banners have continued to hang at the arena each month during every performance.

The singer-songwriter of “Piano Man,” “Uptown Girl,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and many other hits has sold out all his upcoming residency shows through June, as well as a New Year’s Eve concert at UBS Arena at Belmont Park.

Joel has won five Grammy Awards plus a Grammy Legend Award and many other honors. In 2006 he was inducted into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, where the exhibit “Billy Joel — My Life: A Piano Man’s Journey,” opening Nov. 24 at the Stony Brook museum, will chronicle his life with Joel’s active participation. It will include rare photos, awards, instruments, platinum and gold records, and studio audio and video recordings.

In addition, the hamlet of Oyster Bay on Oct. 19 held a ceremony renaming the street in front of his motorcycle shop, 20th Century Cycles, “Billy Joel Way.”