After being forced to weather the recent bruising public attacks from "friend" Elton John and managing to do so with a great deal of style and somehow even successfully keeping his dignity in tact, the 'Piano Man' Billy Joel was due some good news. And Elepharts has it. His "Billy Joel - Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert", a full-length concert film released on March 8, has just entered the Billboard Top Music DVD/Video chart at #1! The film, available in a 2 CD/1 DVD set as well as a stand-alone DVD and stand-alone Blu-ray Disc, is said to capture the heart, soul and star-studded magic of Billy's rock party for the ages, the last shows ever at Shea Stadium, the Home of the New York Mets.
Billy Joel - Live At Shea Stadium: The Concert features more than two hours of Billy and his band offering definitive, and often transcendent versions of hits, rarities, deep catalog, personal favorites and crowd-pleasing surprises including once-in-a-lifetime duets with guest artists Paul McCartney ("I Saw Her Standing There," "Let It Be"), Tony Bennett ("New York State of Mind"), Garth Brooks ("Shameless") and John Mayer ("This Is The Time") along with exclusive DVD/Blu-ray bonus performances with Steven Tyler ("Walk This Way"), Roger Daltrey ("My Generation") and John Mellencamp ("Pink Houses").
As the last performer to play the legendary Shea Stadium, Billy Joel rocked a combined audience of 110,000 people on July 16 and 18, 2008. His two Shea shows selling out in a record-breaking 45 minutes, the Bronx-born Long Island-raised New York native became the only artist ever to have performed at Yankee, Giants and Shea Stadium, the venue that ushered in the stadium rock era with an iconic Beatles performance in 1965.
Billy Joel - Live At Shea Stadium: The Concert provides the full-concert experience excerpted in the acclaimed documentary "The Last Play At Shea," directed by Paul Crowder and produced by Nigel Sinclair and Steve Cohen, in cooperation with Billy Joel's Maritime Pictures. "I had forgotten how much Shea Stadium meant to me," said Sirius Radio DJ Howard Stern after seeing the film. "It was beautiful. I really, truly loved it!" Watching the crowd at Shea scream along to every word of his songs is a powerful reminder of just how important his music is to many generations of Americans," wrote Rolling Stone in response to Billy's performance at Shea.
A worthy companion to "The Last Play At Shea," Billy Joel - Live At Shea Stadium is proving a hit with the music press. Rolling Stone (March 3, 2011) gave the album a three-star review calling the concerts "amazing" while observing that "Joel filled these 2008 shows with his best songs, including early fan favorites....backed by a massive and energetic band...."
"The hometown boy turns the now-demolished ballpark into a giant piano bar on this '08 farewell show," marveled People magazine (March 21, 2011) in its three-star review, adding "That 'Piano Man' sing-along is probably still echoing across the heavens."
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 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 "The Last Play At Shea," the final section of Shea Stadium was torn down in 2009.
"Mr. Joel's music spans the styles of New York City before hip-hop, from classical Tin Pan Alley to doo-wop to Irish-American waltzes to big-band jazz to soul to rock," wrote Jon Pareles in the New York Times review of the Billy's Shea concerts. "But New York itself was often the concert's muse....Mr. Joel's concert presented his New York City as a place full of romantic possibilities that, like ballparks, won't last forever. He recalled that Shea was built while he was a teenager. 'Now they're going to tear it down,' he mused, 'and I'm still playing.'"
45 years later, after two Mets World Series victories and , the last section of Shea Stadium was demolished in February 2009 to make way for the new CitiField.
"The Last Play at Shea' was one of the most memorable concerts I have ever performed," said Billy Joel.
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