Billy Joel pays tribute to Jeff Beck at Madison Square Garden

At his 86th Madison Square Garden residency concert Friday, Billy Joel paid tribute to fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jeff Beck, who died Jan. 10 of bacterial meningitis at age 78.

"A musician who I always, always loved. He was the best," Joel told the sold-out crowd in one of several audience videos online. "Jeff Beck just passed away recently. And I couldn't let the night go by without doing something by Jeff. This is a recording he did with Rod Stewart called 'People Get Ready.' "

The band then launched into the somber yet soaring, 1965 gospel-soul classic written by Curtis Mayfield and covered by Beck and guest vocalist Stewart on Beck's 1985 album, "Flash." Joel delegated the vocals to three band members each singing a lyric, starting with guitarist Mike DelGuidice, formerly of Miller Place. Saxophonist Mark Rivera and percussionist Crystal Taliefero each then sang in turn.

"For Mr. Jeff Beck," the Hicksville-raised Joel declared afterward of the eight-time Grammy Award winner. "The greatest guitarist ever seen."

Later in the concert, the band segued from Joel's hard-driving 1980 hit "You May Be Right," which generally closes his Garden shows, to Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll," with DelGuidice on vocals. After some onstage noodling afterward — with Joel seemingly joking about something not immediately evident, "We should've rehearsed it" — the band then performed another popular Beck cover and concert staple, "Going Down." Released by the short-lived, Memphis, Tennessee-based Southern Rock band Alabama State Troupers in 1972, it appeared on the album "Jeff Beck Group" that same year.

"Jeff Beck!" Joel shouted jubilantly, closing the show. "Good night! Thank you!"

Beck — considered one of the three greatest British blues-rock guitarists along with Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page — replaced Clapton as The Yardbirds’ lead guitarist in 1965. An early pioneer of guitar feedback and distortion, Beck played on numerous hits for that band before going on to form the Jeff Beck Group with future stars Stewart and Ron Wood. After then co-founding the power-rock trio Beck, Bogert & Appice in 1973, he went on to a long solo career and was twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: with The Yardbirds in 1992 and individually in 2009.

The day before the concert, Joel had tweeted, "I just heard the sad news that the great virtuoso guitarist, Jeff Beck, has died. He was one of my heroes. I was fortunate to meet him recently and I’m very grateful now that I was able to tell him how much I admired his musical skill. This is the end of an era. R.I.P."