Baby, Billy Joel was “Born to Run.”
Joel, famously from Long Island, performed the Bruce Springsteen Jersey anthem "Born to Run," along with "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," when the Boss came out to help Joel celebrate his 100th show at Madison Square Garden in New York City Wednesday, July 18.
Springsteen came on stage at about 10 p.m.
“(Springsteen) appeared ready to rock but his performance on ‘Born to Run’ was not as strong as we are used to,” said Jersey fan Tim Jackson, who was in the audience, via email. “He had the crowd in his hand on ‘Tenth Avenue.’ The crowd went nuts, they really did.”
The Boss sat on Joel's piano for "Tenth Avenue."
"Bruce whipped the mixed fan crowd into an absolute frenzy with two songs," said Peter Maimone of North Brunswick.
Springsteen is filming performances of "Springsteen on Broadway" at the Walter Kerr Theatre this week for a Dec. 15 broadcast on Netflix. The Kerr is about a 10 minute slow walk down 8th Avenue to the Garden.
Springsteen and Joel have performed together in the past, and it was Joel’s motorcycle Springsteen broke down on a sunny 2016 Veterans Day in Wall. The bike was from Joel’s custom motorcycle shop, 20th Century Cycles, in Oyster Bay, Long Island.
“Billy was great and he really gave us all a treat in bringing out Bruce,” Jackson said.
Before the show, Gov. Andrew Cuomo proclaimed Wednesday Billy Joel Day in New York State.