Setlist Checklist: Band Hero
In an attempt to bring a new audience to a genre that was seeing a sales slide, Activision took their music game in a new direction, at least from a soundtrack perspective, with the late 2009 release Band Hero, for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 2, from Neversoft, Vicarious Visions, and Budcat Creations.
Given its release was a mere two months following the launch of Guitar Hero 5, there was no real change from a core gameplay perspective compared to that year’s main entry in the series. It retained the party mode, and band moments features that were new to the series, as well as the standard features for the four instrument gameplay that Guitar Hero had become at that point.
In addition, Band Hero featured the same support for previous games in the series that was found in Guitar Hero 5, allowing for the importing of select songs from Guitar Hero: World Tour, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, and Guitar Hero: Metallica, as well as support for most of World Tour’s downloadable content, and 69 of the 85 songs from Guitar Hero 5. Also, all downloadable songs released for Guitar Hero 5 are fully compatible with Band Hero.
The biggest change in Band Hero is the soundtrack, moving away from the Classic Rock focus of previous games in the series, and bringing in a selection of current, and past pop hits, including a focus on popular artist Taylor Swift, who had three songs in the game, in addition to being a playable character in the game (along side Adam Levine, and the members of No Doubt), being in the game’s commercial, and even getting a title billing on Amazon.
Releasing the same day in North America, with a similar more casual focus, Band Hero does share four songs with the Lego Rock Band soundtrack:
- Carl Douglas – Kung Fu Fighting
- David Bowie – Let’s Dance
- Katrina And The Waves – Walking On Sunshine
- The Kooks – Naïve
As noted in previous Setlist Checklist posts (and all future posts, as well), Rock Band 3’s setlist creation tool allows us to create, save, and share setlists, so we have included a Rock Band 3 setlist below that you can save to your profile if you would like to check out any or all of the songs! And as the holes are continually filled in by Rock Band’s weekly DLC releases, we will update this post, and keep it linked in the FAQ page above, for future reference.
Down in numbers from previous Guitar Hero games, Band Hero features only 65 songs, from 62 artists. The smaller number of songs was cited as a negative by some reviewers, given that the game was priced the same as previous games in the series, with a smaller setlist.
27 of the 65 songs from Band Hero are currently available in Rock Band, which equals out to 42%, down a few percent from recent games in the series that we’ve looked at.
The full setlist is after the jump…
| Artist - Title | Rock Band |
|---|---|
| 3 Doors Down - When I'm Gone | 06/28/2011 |
| The Airborne Toxic Event - Gasoline | N/A |
| The All-American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret | 12/25/2007 |
| Alphabeat - Fascination | 02/16/2010 |
| Aly & AJ - Like Whoa | N/A |
| Angels & Airwaves - The Adventure | 06/19/2012 |
| Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals - Steal My Kisses | N/A |
| Big Country - In A Big Country | 10/26/2010 |
| The Bravery - Believe | N/A |
| Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting | 11/03/2009 |
| Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me (Live) | 09/06/2011 * |
| Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up To Dry | N/A |
| Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On | N/A |
| Counting Crows - Angels Of The Silences | N/A |
| Culture Club - Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? | 05/03/2011 |
| Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down | 09/16/2008 |
| David Bowie - Let's Dance | 11/03/2009 |
| Devo - Whip It | 10/26/2010 |
| Don McLean - American Pie | N/A |
| Duffy - Warwick Avenue | N/A |
| Duran Duran - Rio | 11/20/2007 |
| Evanescence - Bring Me To Life | 06/19/2009 |
| Everclear - Santa Monica | 03/06/2012 |
| Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Going Down | 08/16/2011 |
| Filter - Take A Picture | N/A |
| Finger Eleven - Paralyzer | 05/04/2010 |
| The Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed | 11/24/2009 |
| Hilary Duff - So Yesterday | N/A |
| Hinder - Lips of An Angel | N/A |
| Jackson 5 - ABC | 09/08/2009 |
| Janet Jackson - Black Cat | N/A |
| Jesse McCartney - Beautiful Soul | N/A |
| Joan Jett - Bad Reputation | 09/14/2008 |
| Joss Stone - You Had Me | N/A |
| Katrina And The Waves - Walking On Sunshine | 11/03/2009 |
| The Kooks - Naive | 11/03/2009 |
| KT Tunstall - Black Horse & The Cherry Tree | N/A |
| The Last Goodnight - Pictures Of You | N/A |
| Lily Allen - Take What You Take | N/A |
| Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved | N/A |
| Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine | N/A |
| The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Impression That I Get | N/A |
| N.E.R.D. - Rockstar | N/A |
| Nelly Furtado - Turn Off The Light | N/A |
| No Doubt - Don't Speak | 12/09/2008 |
| No Doubt - Just A Girl | 12/09/2008 |
| OK Go - A Million Ways | N/A |
| Papa Roach - Lifeline | 03/17/2009 |
| Parachute - Back Again | N/A |
| Pat Benatar - Love is A Battlefield | 02/22/2011 |
| Poison - Every Rose Has It Thorns | 02/14/2012 |
| Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue - Kids | N/A |
| The Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk Woman | N/A |
| Roy Orbison - Oh, Pretty Woman | 01/06/2009 |
| Santigold - L.E.S. Aristes | N/A |
| Snow Patrol - Take Back The City | 12/30/2008 |
| Spice Girls - Wannabe | N/A |
| Styx - Mr. Roboto | N/A |
| Taylor Swift - Picture To Burn | N/A |
| Taylor Swift - Love Story | N/A |
| Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me | N/A |
| Tonic - If You Could Only See | N/A |
| The Turtles - Happy Together | N/A |
| Village People - YMCA | N/A |
| Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue | 12/22/2009 |
Band Hero Setlist for Rock Band 3
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Pat Benatar’s name is spelled wrong and that song is in Rock Band as of Feb 2011
Mcmax3000 Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 11:31 am
Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve updated the spelling. RockBand.com seems to be down for me right now, but I’ll update the listing once I can get it up to get the info.
Mcmax3000 Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 11:35 am
Fixed completely now.
Meh. Very few songs left here that I’d even care about appearing in Rock Band… American Pie & Honky Tonk Woman being the two big ones. Would definitely grab Mr. Roboto also.
I think Band Hero was probably the dullest rhythm game I’ve played, besides maybe GH: Smash Hits.
Simon Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 11:56 am
Agree completely and I would probably add YMCA and Happy Together because I think those would be fun to sing. The rest doesn’t really have any appeal to me.
Maybe you should make a note that while I Want You to Want Me is live across both games, they’re different versions. The BH one is much more fun on guitar (IMO), but the RB one is the much more famous one from At Budokan (and still pretty fun). Also, Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar was released on RB on the 22nd February 2011.
Still, BH had an alright setlist, for what it was. More Rolling Stones is never a bad thing, some Maroon 5 from the first album would be a real delight in RB as opposed to all of the other stuff we’ve been getting (This Love is a decent start, though). You Had Me and Picture to Burn were some of my favourite surprises, too. Great fun on guitar.
And finally, .
Mcmax3000 Reply:
October 2nd, 2012 at 7:05 am
Made a note for I Want You to Want Me. Thanks for pointing that out. I haven’t actually played Band Hero, so I didn’t know they were different live versions.
This game has the infamous distinction as being the exact moment when everybody realized Activision had lost it’s mind in managing the “Hero” franchise.
With Guitar Hero 5 fresh in stores, and news of Guitar Hero: Van Halen on the way…there was quite literally NO reason for this to exist. It offered nothing different in terms of gameplay and only served to anger GH fans who looked at the setlist and said “Oh hey…there’s some great DLC potential in there!”
Even LEGO had some differences from Rock Band 2, and came out almost a full year later. This just screamed “OH HEY US TOO GUYS!”
The title itself “Band Hero” just made it even worse, as Guitar Hero had already been a full band title for two iterations and a spin-off by the time this hit stores.
But on the plus side, it was a fun rental and a quick 1000 GS. And when I finally settled down with Warriors of Rock it was a cheap export. I don’t think Activision got a dime from me aside from that.
Mcmax3000 Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 11:36 am
When I was trying to do the write up for this one, it really became apparent how exactly the same it was to GH5 aside from the setlist.
It was almost painful in spots trying to write about it without just repeating everything I typed about Guitar Hero 5.
Elliott Reply:
October 2nd, 2012 at 12:08 am
Guess you don’t care about the motion capture work done for each song.
OsagaTheGreat Reply:
October 2nd, 2012 at 7:14 am
Yeah. That was some of the best MoCap in any GH game, second only to Bohemian Rhapsody in WoR
From Band Hero, I’d still like Gasoline, Angels of the Scilence, American Pie, Warwick Avenue, Take a Picture, Lips of an Angel, Black Cat, You Had Me, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, She Will Be Loved, The Impression I Get, Kids, Honky Tonk Woman, Wannabe, Mr. Roboto, Picture to Burn, You Belong With Me, Love Story, and YMCA.
Wow, now that I think about it, Band Hero had an AWESOME setlist!
OsagaTheGreat Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 11:38 am
Oh yeah, and If You Could Only See, and Happy Together.
That’s still 21 songs I want from this game, plus a whole bunch of the ones we do have from this game with RB3 versions.
James Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 6:37 pm
Man, I could’ve sworn Black Horse was on RB…
LoopyChew Reply:
October 4th, 2012 at 5:25 am
We have “Suddenly I See” from LRB.
I loved this soundtrack, loads of surprisingly great songs. Band Hero introduced me to The Airborne Toxic Event, Everclear, Styx and Yellowcard.
Id like Take a Picture, Honky Tonk Woman, So Happy Together, and Impression that I get. Everything else? Meh. Zero interest
That game was an insult to its own source material.
“Them good ol’ boys were drinking ________ and wine.”
I’d want many of those songs over on RB. I’ve got BH and never play it. Not because all the songs suck or anything, I just much more prefer the way RB presents them.
One (about the only) thing Guitar Hero does better than RockBand is they have characters based on the real singers in the game. So if I could get Taylor Swift to sing You Belong With Me to ME… that is reason enough to get this game.
Wow, not a lot left from this setlist that I’d want in RB, but the ones that do exist are pretty big. Namely:
Styx – Mr. Roboto
Tonic – If You Could Only See
Counting Crows – Angels of the Silences
Rolling Stones – Honky Tonk Women
Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression that I Get
And I wouldn’t say no to a little Don McLean, Marvin Gaye, The Turtles, or the Village People. And *sigh*, my wife would want me to get KT Tunstall and the Spice Girls.
Rix311 Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 9:56 pm
I would LOVE to have Mr. Roboto!
Maybe “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” deserve a note, since we have Creedence.
Mcmax3000 Reply:
October 2nd, 2012 at 7:07 am
I thought about noting that, but I decided against it since they are completely different artists.
You should have included the DS port of the game as well, which featured a different soundtrack. Unless that’s going to be another installment of this feature.
Mcmax3000 Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 4:54 pm
The DS versions are definitely being considered for a future post. Between them, they have a bunch of songs that never came to any of the other games in the series.
I definitely won’t forget about them… I’m actually friends with one of the guys who designed that guitar grip for the DS games, and with someone that I think did QA on the Band Hero DS game, because he mentioned having to test an Avril Lavigne song.
I personally will not be missing Aly & AJ.
Arguably less mainstream/poppy than the last several months of Rock Band DLC. I realize HMX has to pay the bills but I’m hoping things get more interesting soon.
LGscoundrel Reply:
October 1st, 2012 at 6:12 pm
However not a minute later I realize how stupid that sounds with all the mileage I’m getting out of the DLC sale.
I kinda liked this game, good songs for when the ladies stop by, enjoy playin’ these ones: (that aren’t in Rock Band…..yet)
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals – Steal My Kisses
Corinne Bailey Rae – Put Your Records On
Don McLean – American Pie
Duffy – Warwick Avenue
Janet Jackson – Black Cat
Joss Stone – You Had Me
KT Tunstall – Black Horse & The Cherry Tree
Lily Allen – Take What You Take
Maroon 5 – She Will Be Loved
Marvin Gaye – I Heard It Through The Grapevine
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Impression That I Get
OK Go – A Million Ways
The Rolling Stones – Honky Tonk Woman
Spice Girls – Wannabe
Styx – Mr. Roboto
Taylor Swift – Picture To Burn
Taylor Swift – Love Story
Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me
The Turtles – Happy Together
Village People – YMCA
I can safely say that i don’t want any tracks that haven’t been released on rock band.*
*YMCA is a cool song, but i wouldnt play it in rock band.
Ospero Reply:
October 2nd, 2012 at 10:03 am
Well, I’d love a version of “American Pie” with restored lyrics and actually charted piano…
I wouldn’t mind getting Lips of an Angel brought over, and Wannabe I would buy just for the lol factor.
I do have some fond memories of this game, though, particularly American Pie. Due to the way the song was censored and the game saying “just sing whatever you want when you think there are words missing”, I always switched out the word “Whiskey” for some other 2-syllable fluid. Really POed my roommate, but damn them good old boys definitely had some . . . interesting taste in drinks.
This setlist is equal to RB:Blitz’s setlist. That being said, neither is that bad to me.
I want:
American Pie (["expletive" deleted] and rye)
Steal My Kisses (for dat bass solo)
If Only You Could See
Laylor Twift
expertwinSH Reply:
October 2nd, 2012 at 7:24 pm
Forgot BHatCT. I want a lot of this actually.
It makes me sad that we’ve never gotten any more Bosstones on RB.
I’d be happy with The Impression That I Get as a single, despite my wanting at least a three pack…
American Pie, Gasoline, Happy Together and Mr Roboto please
I’d really like to see Taylor Swift in Rock Band. She’s got some fun songs that are nice to sing. Plus I would think her popularity would bring Harmonix some strong sales.
Does anyone have any insight on when/if this can happen? Considering the whole ‘exclusive’ nature and the fact that Guitar Hero has been anesthetized… What are the odds?
“Love is a Battlefield” was so undercharted on guitar in BH. The RB version was a lot more fun!