Billy Joel & Guests In Boston State Of Mind At Fenway

He may be a Yankee-lover at heart, but beloved New Yorker Billy Joel embraced all things Boston last night for his first show ever at Fenway Park. The Piano Man filled his 20+ song performance with nods to Beantown, special guest appearances and even played a bit of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” on Thursday night at the historic Massachusetts ballpark.

Joel and his band walked on stage to music from baseball-themed movie The Natural and kicked off the main set with “A Matter Of Trust.” One of the first surprises of the night came when Billy gave fans a taste of “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond, a song that is played over the PA at every Red Sox game held at Fenway.

Watch fan-shot footage of “Sweet Caroline” shot by Davidsco:

The show then continued with classic hit “The Entertainer” and the aforementioned “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” snippet before Billy welcomed 13-year-old teen prodigy Emma Stanganelli of Salem, NH for a Boston-centric take on “New York State Of Mind.” New Hampshire musician Pat Garrett wrote “Boston State Of Mind” after the Boston Marathon bombings to help raise funds for survivors. The crowd ate up all the Boston references within the song. Watch Davidsco’s footage of “Boston State Of Mind”:

The final big surprise of the evening came towards the end of the encore, when Billy Joel brought out Zac Brown for “You May Be Right.” Zac and the Zac Brown Band are set to play Fenway Park tonight and tomorrow. Brown has covered Billy’s “Piano Man” 22 times over the past two years at his own shows.

The videos of Zac Brown teaming with Billy Joel on “You May Be Right” to surface thus far are of poor quality, but here’s one with at least decent audio of the guest spot:

Take a look at the setlist from last night’s show: