Billy Joel and Paul McCartney close out Shea

July 20, 2008: It was a rare night for fans of Seventies pop icon Billy Joel, and for New Yorkers in general: a chance to see the semi-retired hitmaker get into a real New York state of mind by playing the famous ballpark, and at the very last show before the legendary stadium is torn down, to boot. But the sellout crowd of 55,000 got more than even they bargained for last Friday night, when, after three hours of classic Joel hits, he announced surprise guest Paul McCartney, who, with his old group -- no, not Wings -- brought rock and roll into stadiums for the first time with their historic 1965 and 1966 concerts. Paul sang "I Saw Her Standing There" with Joel singing and playing behind him (although he never performed that number at either of the two Shea shows he did with the Beatles!) and before a singalong of "Let It Be," marked the occasion by saying, "Been here a long time ago — we had a blast that night, and we’re having another one tonight."

Joel also brought several other arena-rock vets up for duets: Garth Brooks (singing his hit version of Billy's "Shameless"), Steven Tyler of Aerosmith (performing history's two billionth rendition of "Walk This Way"), and the Who's Roger Daltry, performing "My Generation" while Joel took over the obligatory guitar-smashing duties from an absent Pete Townshend. The documentary of the event, also titled "Last Double Play at Shea," is expected to hit theaters next year, although some fans were miffed that this double started out as a single: seems the first show on Wednesday was supposed to be the last, until demand forced the adding of another final show.