Great Performances “Billy Joel: Live at Shea Stadium”

Special guests Sir Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks share the spotlight

Shortly before the demolition of New York City's Shea Stadium in July 2008, superstar Billy Joel electrified audiences with two memorable concerts at the historic arena.   Joel's special guests included Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, and Sir Paul McCartney whose 1965 appearance there with the Beatles was so iconic .

Paul Crowder's film , Last Play at Shea , a documentary about those concerts, which intertwined the history of the stadium and the New York Mets with Joel's New York-centric biography, received accolades when it premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival last October. Stephen Holden of The New York Times dubbed it “exhilarating,” noting of Joel's musical selections, “His blunt, irresistibly tuneful songs, however autobiographical, are also nuggets of American cultural history.”

Now, those songs, mostly heard in fragmentary form in the documentary, are performed in full in Billy Joel: Live at Shea Stadium airing on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 9 p.m. on Eight, Arizona PBS.

Joel and his band offer definitive and often transcendent versions of hits, rarities, personal favorites and crowd-pleasing surprises, including duets with guests McCartney (“I Saw Her Standing There,” “Let it Be”), Bennett (“New York State of Mind”), and Brooks (“Shameless”).

Built in 1964, Shea Stadium was the home of the New York Mets for 45 years. Designed as a multi-purpose stadium, Shea became the birthplace of arena rock when the Beatles appeared there on August 15, 1965, establishing the ballpark as a pinnacle venue for rock's biggest names. The Who, The Police, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and others have all played Shea.

Chosen as the last rock act to play the venue, Billy Joel staged his "Last Play at Shea" concerts on July 16 and July 18, 2008, rocking a combined audience of 110,000 fans with one of the most emotionally charged shows ever played at the historic stadium.  After 45 years, two New York Mets World Series victories, the arena debut of The Beatles and Billy Joel's "Last Play At Shea," the final section of Shea Stadium was torn down in 2009.

Songs

Angry Young Man

My Life

Always a Woman

New York State of Mind (with Tony Bennett)

Allentown

Shameless (with Garth Brooks)

River of Dreams/Hard Days Night

We Didn't Start the Fire

Captain Jack

Goodnight Saigon

I Saw Her Standing There (Paul McCartney)

Italian Restaurant

Take Me Out to the Ball Game/Piano Man

Let it Be (Paul McCartney)