Favs, obscure from “Piano Man” to “No Man’s Land” outline Billy Joel’s fifth consecutive Wrigley swing

Photos by Ed Spinelli

In any city on earth, Billy Joel is a “Big Shot,” but beyond New York City where he stages a monthly residency at Madison Square Garden, Chicago is steadily becoming a second home. For the record-breaking fifth consecutive year, the “Piano Man” filled up Wrigley Field, and while he made sure most everyone’s main favorites appeared, he threw the Chicago Cubs’ home turf nearly as many refreshing curveballs.

Billy Joel didn’t have any special guests, frills or fuss, but all he needed was that recognizable voice, his primary instrument and an adoring all-ages crowd who can now add seeing the living legend to their list of concert accomplishments.

Now 69, Joel doesn’t record new music anymore, yet continues exuding a passion and spontaneity for performing, evident right from the get go of a two-plus hour appearance when “My Life” trailed into “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)” right into the rarity “Summer, Highland Falls.” Backed by an outstanding band of longtime collaborators, he’s indeed quite “The Entertainer,” though thankfully, never one who sticks to a script, as indicated by saying whatever comes to mind between songs or busting into Derek And The Dominos’ “Layla” on a whim or his own overlooked treasure “No Man’s Land.”

Percussion/saxophone player Crystal Taliefero (who grew up in Indiana) even paid a soulful tribute to Aretha Franklin via “Respect,” while guitarist Mike DelGuidice astonished on the opera aria “Nessun dorma.” Along the way, Joel jumped all around his memorable catalogue, including “Allentown,” “She’s Always A Woman” and “The River Of Dreams,” which skewed locally thanks to a few lines from “My Kind Of Town.”

In previous appearances, “Only The Good Die Young” usually wrapped up the entire trip down memory lane, but on this particular night, it got everyone’s blood flowing a little earlier. Joel also vividly repainted “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,” insisted on behalf of his generation that “We Didn’t Start The Fire” and went back to childhood street corners for the doo-wop of “Uptown Girl.”

His field-filling production with screens shaped like piano keys especially lit up the sky by “It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me,” which couldn’t have been a more fitting neighbor to “You May Be Right” (enhanced with Led Zeppelin’s “Rock And Roll”). Joel didn’t have any special guests, frills or fuss, but all he needed was that recognizable voice, his primary instrument and an adoring, all-ages crowd who can now add seeing the living legend to their list of concert accomplishments.