Foo Fighters have closed their week as Jimmy Kimmel Live‘s musical guests with Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street”, bringing an old cover back into the spotlight. The show’s official performance video is now online, while the band’s studio version has also returned to major streaming services.
Performance image: Jimmy Kimmel Live / ABC.
A familiar melody, carried by guitar
The television performance aired on Thursday, 29 October, completing a run that also included “Window”, “This Is a Call” and “Your Favorite Toy”. The cover is also now available on Apple Music, Spotify and Amazon Music.
Chris Shiflett takes the melody associated with the original’s saxophone and carries it on guitar. It is a natural way into the Foo Fighters arrangement: the instantly recognisable hook remains at the centre, but the instrumentation places the song in the band’s own sound.
A recording with a long history
This is a fresh airing of an established cover. The studio recording dates to a BBC Radio 1 Evening Session in April 1997, with releases around the Colour and the Shape era and on versions of the “My Hero” single. It later appeared among the band’s archival and covers material, while remaining difficult to find on some streaming platforms.
That history connects two different moments: a recording made early in Foo Fighters’ career and a television performance by the band in 2026. The archive photograph above shows the group in 1998, close to the period when their interpretation first circulated.
From a personal favourite to a wider audience
Dave Grohl had flagged the choice during his conversation with Kimmel earlier in the week, describing Rafferty’s song as a favourite linked to childhood listening. The band had also revived it at a Los Angeles benefit earlier this month. Between the new broadcast clip and the restored streaming access, listeners now have two routes into a cover that has spent much of its life away from the main catalogue.
