Foo Fighters closed their four-night run on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street.” They kept the 1978 hit’s recognizable melody but moved it from saxophone to electric guitar.
Chris Shiflett handled that part during the October 29 broadcast, with Dave Grohl singing and Ilan Rubin on drums. Consequence described the performance as the conclusion of the band’s week as the show’s musical guests.
The other three nights drew from their own catalog. ABC‘s performance archive lists “Window” on Monday, “This Is a Call” on Tuesday and “Your Favorite Toy” on Wednesday. The opening and closing tracks of that sequence came from their 2026 album, Your Favorite Toy, while “This Is a Call” reached back to their 1995 debut.
Rafferty originally released “Baker Street” on City to City, and the song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Raphael Ravenscroft played the saxophone melody on the original recording.
The Band Revives a Cover First Recorded for the BBC
Foo Fighters recorded their version during an April 30, 1997, session at London’s Maida Vale Studios for BBC Radio 1’s Evening Session, according to JamBase. At the time, Grohl had a mischievous explanation for the band’s choices.
“We sorta thought it’d be fun to do four songs that people would probably hate and never expect us to do,” he told BBC presenter Steve Lamacq in remarks revisited by MusicRadar. He also joked about the 1970s influences being attributed to the group as it promoted The Colour and the Shape.
The recording appeared on versions of the “My Hero” single in 1998 and on the expanded 10th-anniversary edition of The Colour and the Shape. It later joined Medium Rare, the vinyl covers collection released for Record Store Day on April 16, 2011, as NME reported at the time. Consequence also reported this week that the archival recording is now available on Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon Music.
Grohl Connects the Song to Car Rides With His Mother
During his October 26 interview with Kimmel, Grohl explained why the song had stayed with him. He remembered riding in the car with his mother during the 1970s, listening to AM radio. “‘Baker Street’ is one of my favorite songs of all time,” he said, according to Billboard.
Grohl also mentioned Rafferty’s “Right Down the Line” and his earlier work with Stealers Wheel, the group behind “Stuck in the Middle With You.” The recollection came with a promise about the band’s forthcoming performance: “We’ll rock that.”
A Los Angeles Benefit Brought the Cover Back Before ‘Kimmel’
The song had already returned to the band’s live repertoire on October 17 at the Hollywood Palladium. Grohl was billed as a solo performer for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music’s 25th-anniversary benefit, but his Foo Fighters bandmates joined him for a set of originals and covers.
Rolling Stone reported that their previous live performance of “Baker Street” dated to November 2007. The conservatory said the anniversary fundraiser would help sustain its music programs and increase scholarships for families in need.
Thursday’s television broadcast coincided with another Los Angeles appearance for Grohl, he played drums with Aerosmith at the Hollywood Bowl. JamBase reported that the Kimmel performance had been filmed on October 26.
Foo Fighters’ next scheduled run begins November 5 at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium. The Australian itinerary continues through Townsville, Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne and Adelaide during November, with New Zealand shows and a Perth date following in January.