News

Paul McCartney Debuts Beatles Tune at Yankee Stadium

Paul McCartney played his first shows at New York’s new Yankee Stadium on Friday and Saturday nights. Though the Beatle had never performed at Yankee Stadium before, he has a long history with New York ball parks. The Beatles headlined one of the first true stadium shows at Queens, NY’s Shea Stadium in 1965 and the groups played second show at Shea a year later. In 2008, McCartney joined Billy Joel for a surprise cover of “Let It Be” at the final concert at Shea Stadium. Bringing things full circle, McCartney played the first concerts at Shea Stadium’s replacement Citi Field in 2009 and brought out Billy Joel for a cover of “I Saw Her Standing There.”

Like most of his performances since 2001, McCartney’s solo band included guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, keyboardist Paul “Wix” Wickens and drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. Both of this weekend’s -shows mixed Beatles classics and McCartney solo cuts and material from his other band Wings. Friday’s show also included McCartney’s first live version of the Beatles’ “The Night Before” and both concerts included The Fireman track “Sing the Change.” On Saturday night, Billy Joel also sat in with McCartney on “I Saw Her Standing There.” McCartney also joked from the stage about Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, the latest member of MLB’s 3,000 hit club: “Who is this Derek Jeter guy? Somebody said he’s got more hits than me.”