Sellout Crowds Cram Shea At Both Billy Joel Concerts

Photo David Gordon Show business legends Billy Joel and Tony Bennett (r.) serenaded a capacity crowd at Shea Stadium on Wednesday, July 16 in the first of two "The Last Play at Shea: From the Beatles to Billy Joel" concerts. The second concert took place on Friday, July 18.

What would have been the last concert at Shea Stadium before the home of the Mets and the site of the Beatles' first outdoor concert in the United States falls to the wrecking ball became the penultimate concert after tickets to "The Last Play at Shea: From the Beatles to Billy [Joel]" scheduled for Wednesday, July 16 went on sale in mid-March and sold out in 40 minutes. Many tickets, originally listed at a little under $100 or so, were rumored to have gone in some cases as high as $100,000 through scalpers and brokers, so a second show on Friday, July 18 was scheduled in an effort to be fair on the part of the promoters. The two-night event took place while the Mets were out of town.

Early on during the Wednesday show, headliner Billy Joel apologized to the crowd for the deceptive advertising. Joel made up for it with a show more than three hours long featuring guest appearances by Tony Bennett, John Cougar Mellencamp, Don Henley and John Mayer. The Friday audience was treated to appearances by Steven Tyler, Garth Brooks, Roger Daltry and, closing the show, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney.

Joel's Wednesday concert began with the National Anthem before going into "Miami 2017", with lyrics changed to honor the occasion- "They said the Mets can stay, but they can't play at Shea." A number of songs honored the historic ballpark: during "Zanzibar", clips of the Mets' greatest victories appeared on the Diamond Vision screen. Henley performed his classic, "Boys of Summer". Joel invited Mayer to perform a duet with him on "This is the Time". Mellencamp performed "Pink Houses".

On Friday, Brooks wore a Mets shirt while performing Joel's song, "Shameless". Daltry, who, with The Who performed at Shea in 1982, led the crowd in "My Generation", while Tyler performed "Walk This Way". But the high point of each concert had to have been the legends- Bennett on Wednesday and McCartney on Friday.

Joel and Bennett did a rousing duet of "New York State of Mind" to deafening applause. Perhaps even more deafening was the applause reserved for Sir Paul McCartney, who led the crowd in "I Saw Her Standing There" and to close the concert, a sing-along version of "Let It Be".

"I want to thank The Beatles for letting us use their room," Joel began on Wednesday, every now and then segueing from one of his songs to one of theirs. In the middle of "River of Dreams" Joel paused and then started playing "A Hard Day's Night". On Friday night, McCartney thanked the crowd for letting him perform 43 years after the Beatles' historic 1965 concert. "Came here a long time ago," he said. "We had a blast that night, and we're having another one tonight."

"To produce what [Billy Joel] did is worthy of being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame itself," said Phil Konigsberg of Bay Terrace, who has fond memories of seeing past concerts by the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen at Shea.

"I was ecstatic," Irene Levine of Bellmore declared. "I LOVE Tony Bennett and Don Henley, so it made me want to jump out of my skin!"