As of Wednesday July 16th, Billy Joel played one of the last two concerts at Shea Stadiumi in New York City. I believe Billy played at Shea stadium again last night on Friday. Yep, Billy Joel is retiring from music for good. Which kind of sucks because he’s been one of my favorites for a long time and I’ve admired Billy Joel for years. I’ve been hoping he would go back into the studio for a new album with new songs but I don’t see that happening anytime soon, because look like he’s done. The picture above is him performing at Shea Stadium.
Billy Joel played cover songs at the concert too, along with special surprise guests he collaborated with on stage. Special guests were John Mellencamp, John Mayer, Tony Bennett and Don Henley.
Billy Joel’s set list at Shea Stadium July 16th 2008:
Star Spangled Banner
Miami 2017
Prelude/Angry Young Man
My Life
Everybody Loves You Now
The Entertainer
Zanzibar
Allentown
Ballad of Billy the Kid
New York State of Mind w/ Tony Bennett
Big Man on Mulberry Street
Root Beer Rag
Movin Out
Goodnight Saigon
Don’t Ask Me Why
This is the Time with John Mayer
Keeping the Faith
Downeaster “Alexa”
Innocent Man with “Stand By Me” intro
Boys of Summer with Don Henley
She’s Always a Woman
Captain Jack
Lullabye
River of Dreams/”Hard Days Night”
Pink Houses with John Mellencamp
We Didn’t Start the Fire
Still Rock and Roll
You May Be Right
Please Please Me
Encore:
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Only the Good Die Young
She Loves You
Piano Man
Souvenir
The second Shea Stadium show, the set was a little different with different special guests collaborations, Special guests in the second show were Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Sir Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, Roger Daltrey, and Tony Bennett.
Billy’s setlist for July 18th at Shea Stadium:
Star Spangled Banner, Miami 2017, Prelude/Angry Young Man, My Life, The Entertainer, Summer, Highland Falls, Zanzibar, Allentown, Ballad of Billy the Kid, New York State of Mind (with Tony Bennett), Root Beer Rag, Goodnight Saigon, Don’t Ask Me Why, Keeping The Faith, The Downeaster “Alexa”, This Night, Movin’ Out, Under The Boardwalk/An Innocent Man, Shameless (duet with Garth Brooks), She’s Always A Woman, Captain Jack, Lullabye, River of Dreams/A Hard Days Night, Walk This Way (with Steven Tyler), We Didn’t Start The Fire, It’s Still Rock ‘n Roll To Me, My Generation (with Roger Daltrey), You May Be Right
Encore: Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Only The Good Die Young,
Second Encore: I Saw Her Standing There (with Sir Paul McCartney), Piano Man, Let It Be (with Sir Paul McCartney)
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Hopefully both of these concerts gets released on CD and DVD in the future. I’m sure Billy would release them. It’s a shame he’s retiring. He’s a talented songwriter and still has it. That Shea Stadium show proved that he is still loved today.
Kev
K'Brocking 
I loved seeing Billy Joel in concert at shea stadium. I am a big big Met fan so I felt good he was in our house. We worked so hard on getting tickets for what was suppose to be his last show at Shea. It was amazing and I truly feel blessed that I and my family were able to attend the July 16, 2008 show. It rocked the house. However, I am truly upset that we did not have the same performers as did the fans on Friday night. We were happy and surprised with the guests we saw but 2 of our favorites Garth Broook and Paul McCartney were not there as they were on Friday night. I don’t want to say we were jipped but we did pay the same money as the Friday night people. I do feel though that it was a publicity stunt and am not happy. We are still fans of Billy Joel and will always be but the fact remains we did not see the same show for the same money.
I loved seeing Billy Joel in concert at shea stadium. I am a big big Met fan so I felt good he was in our house. We worked so hard on getting tickets for what was suppose to be his last show at Shea. It was amazing and I truly feel blessed that I and my family were able to attend the July 16, 2008 show. It rocked the house. However, I am truly upset that we did not have the same performers as did the fans on Friday night. We were happy and surprised with the guests we saw but 2 of our favorites Garth Broook and Paul McCartney were not there as they were on Friday night. I don’t want to say we were jipped but we did pay the same money as the Friday night people. I do feel though that it was a publicity stunt and am not happy. We are still fans of Billy Joel and will always be but the fact remains we did not see the same show for the same money.
Billy Joel never said he’s retiring from music. He’s already booked tours in Asia and Australia this fall, and word has it that he may reprise his duets with Elton John next year in the States. Billy’s not leaving just yet.
Billy Joel never said he’s retiring from music. He’s already booked tours in Asia and Australia this fall, and word has it that he may reprise his duets with Elton John next year in the States. Billy’s not leaving just yet.
To Theresa D’Amato, 1. There was no publicity stunt. There was no advertisement that said ‘One Night Only’, or Final New York Appearance’, and even Billy Joel announced at his press conference that he might add another show if the ticket demand was there.2. Joel wanted to try to satisfy the ticket demand from fans who got gypped out of tickets thanks to the scalpers who can grab off as many tickets as they want because New York refuses to enforce the anti-scalping laws.3. After the Wednesday night sellout, when Joel asked the Mets for another available night, he was told the only night that he could have was on the following Friday. That’s the Mets organization’s fault – not Joel’s. 4. If you think that Wednesday’s show with guest stars Tony Bennet, Don Henley, John Mayer, and John Mellencamp was not worth the ticket price, then you seem like someone who’s pretty hard to please 5. Despite rumors to the contrary, no one in Billy Joel’s organization had any idea that Paul MacCartney would actually show up to play on Friday until the very last minute. What was Joel supposed to do? Tell Paul to pack up his bass and leave because someone might not be happy about it ? 6. You got a great show. Some of us thought it was even better than Friday.
To Theresa D’Amato, 1. There was no publicity stunt. There was no advertisement that said ‘One Night Only’, or Final New York Appearance’, and even Billy Joel announced at his press conference that he might add another show if the ticket demand was there.2. Joel wanted to try to satisfy the ticket demand from fans who got gypped out of tickets thanks to the scalpers who can grab off as many tickets as they want because New York refuses to enforce the anti-scalping laws.3. After the Wednesday night sellout, when Joel asked the Mets for another available night, he was told the only night that he could have was on the following Friday. That’s the Mets organization’s fault – not Joel’s. 4. If you think that Wednesday’s show with guest stars Tony Bennet, Don Henley, John Mayer, and John Mellencamp was not worth the ticket price, then you seem like someone who’s pretty hard to please 5. Despite rumors to the contrary, no one in Billy Joel’s organization had any idea that Paul MacCartney would actually show up to play on Friday until the very last minute. What was Joel supposed to do? Tell Paul to pack up his bass and leave because someone might not be happy about it ? 6. You got a great show. Some of us thought it was even better than Friday.
I love billy Joel.
I hope he keeps singing for along time. He’s one of my favorite people
in the whole wide world.Can he e-mail me back?
I love billy Joel.
I hope he keeps singing for along time. He’s one of my favorite people
in the whole wide world.Can he e-mail me back?