With Billy Joel‘s two-song cameo on Tuesday night (September 26th) at Paul McCartney‘s Nassau Coliseum concert on Long Island, Billy is slowly racking up landmark New York performances with the former Beatle. Billy joined “Macca” for the encores at the show, playing McCartney’s “magical” rainbow piano on “Get Back” and “Birthday.”
Over the years, the pair — who both were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the same 1999 class — have performed together during Billy’s 2008 closing show at Shea Stadium, with McCartney taking the stage for the venue’s closing songs. In 2009, McCartney — an admitted Yankees fan — made history by becoming the first artist to play the Mets’ new stadium, Citi Field — with Billy joining in on the opening night of the three night stand. Two years after that, he once again tickled the ivories when McCartney played the second of two nights at Yankee Stadium.
FUN FACTS – Billy Joel & The Beatles:
- Paul McCartney’s original Wings drummer Denny Seiwell actually handled production duties for portions of Billy Joel’s 1971 debut, Cold Spring Harbor.
- Billy Joel and first wife and manger Elizabeth tried to buy an apartment in the Upper West Side’s luxurious Dakota apartments building — which is where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived. The building’s co-op board turned Billy down fearing the crowds outside the building would grow tremendous if Lennon and Billy both lived there.
- In 1986, following his work on The Bridge — his final album with Billy Joel — longtime producer Phil Ramone signed on to produce Paul McCartney’s followup album to that year’s Press To Play. Although no long player saw release, over the years, a handful of “Macca’s” Ramone-produced 1987/1988 tracks have seen the light of day on various B-sides and CD singles.
- Billy Joel and Paul McCartney share an attorney — McCartney brother-in-law and the late-Linda McCartney’s older brother, John Eastman.
