There’s still roughly a month to wait before we can get our hands on Rock Band 3 (unless you’re this guy). No doubt most of you have listened to the entire setlist over and over again, got your pre-orders sorted and the release day booked off work, but the wait, the excitement, and the anticipation is agonizing!

So to help tide you over until October 26th (or Oct 29th if you live on the unlucky side of the pond), why not read through this exhaustive list of nerdy, insignificant and ultimately pointless facts about the game’s setlist?

Previous Rock Band Appearances

When the setlist was first announced/leaked, a huge total of 47 artists on there were brand new additions to the RB library. Since that however, eight of those artists have had DLC released, knocking that tally down to a still impressive 39. It’s also worth pointing out that John Lennon obviously has appeared in Rock Band before as a member of The Beatles, so claiming that Lennon is a brand new addition to Rock Band isn’t quite accurate…

Of the remaining 45 artists, nine of them have only one other song available for Rock Band: The B-52s, James Brown, The Muffs, Elton John, Phish, Smash Mouth, The Smiths, The Sounds, and Them Crooked Vultures.

A further eleven of that remaining 36 have only two songs currently available in the RB library: Deep Purple, Dio, The Doobie Brothers, Faith No More, Joan Jett, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marilyn Manson, Paramore, Phoenix, T. Rex and Tokio Hotel.

The Who are the only band to appear in each of the three Rock Band games, with “Won’t Get Fooled Again” in Rock Band, “Pinball Wizard” in Rock Band 2 and “I Can See For Miles” in Rock Band 3.

Josh Homme has also appeared on each game’s setlist though, with Queens of the Stone Age’s “Go With The Flow” in Rock Band, guest vocals and guitar on Mastodon’s “Colony of Birchmen” in Rock Band 2, and both Queen of the Stone Age’s “No One Knows” and Them Crooked Vultures’ “Dead End Friends” in Rock Band 3.

• If you include Lego Rock Band, there are now four other bands/artists with three appearances on Rock Band games:
  • Bon Jovi – “Wanted Dead or Alive” in Rock Band, “Livin’ on a Prayer” in Rock Band 2 and “You Give Love A Bad Name” in LEGO Rock Band
  • David Bowie- “Suffragette City” in Rock Band, “Let’s Dance” in LEGO Rock Band and “Space Oddity” in Rock Band 3
  • Foo Fighters – “Learn to Fly” in Rock Band, “Everlong” in Rock Band 2 and “Breakout” in LEGO Rock Band
  • The Police – “Next to You” in Rock Band, “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” in LEGO Rock Band and “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” in Rock Band 3
• Queen also have three on-disc appearances now, as they had both “We Are The Champions” and “We Will Rock You” in LEGO Rock Band, and “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Rock Band 3.

Nationalities

Rock Band 3 has, without doubt, the most culturally diverse setlist of any music game yet. Whereas 76% of Rock Band’s setlist was populated by American artists, and Rock Band 2 topping that with 81%, RB3 has only 53% – or 44 out of its 83 songs. And while Rock Band 3 features songs from bands all around the globe, both previous Rock Band games featured only one band from a non-English speaking territory: Sweden’s The Hives and Italy’s Lacuna Coil, respectively.

Out of the remaining songs, twenty of them are from British artists, which equates to 24% of the setlist. Rock Band’s setlist had 17% British music and Rock Band 2 had only 13%.

The following countries are home to two artists on the setlist:

• Australia – INXS and The Vines
• Canada – Metric and Tegan and Sera
• France – Phoenix and Poni Hoax
• Germany – Rammstein and Tokio Hotel
• Sweden – Roxette and The Sounds

The nationalities of the rest of the artists are as follows:

• Colombian – Juanes
• Danish – The Ravonettes
• Dutch – Golden Earring
• Finnish – HIM
• Iranian – Hypernova
• Jamaican – Bob Marley & the Wailers
• Mexican – Maná
• Norwegian – Ida Maria
• Spanish – Dover

Despite the international flavor of the artists, only three of them are sung in a foreign language. Both Maná – “Oye Mi Amor” and Juanes – “Me Enamora” are in Spanish, while Rammstein – “Du Hast” is in German.

Hypernova are the first Asian band to appear on a Rock Band game’s setlist, hailing from Iran. However, you could argue that X Japan were technically the first; their song “IV” was one of the twenty free DLC songs included with Rock Band 2.

INXS and The Vines are the third and fourth Australian bands to appear on-disc, following Jet in Rock Band and AC/DC in Rock Band 2.

Each iteration of Rock Band has introduced two new Canadian artists to the Rock Band library. Metric and Tegan and Sera carry on that tradition in Rock Band 3, following Rush and The New Pornographers in Rock Band, The Guess Who and Alanis Morrisette in Rock Band 2 and Sum 41 and Bryan Adams in LEGO Rock Band.

Release Dates

The Doors – “Break On Through (To The Other Side)” is the oldest song in Rock Band 3, originally released in 1967. But it’s not the oldest song in the entire Rock Band library; The Beatles: Rock Band contained numerous songs from earlier than that, but the earliest outside of TB:RB falls to The Zombies – “She’s Not There,” originally released in July 1964.

The setlist contains six songs from the 1960’s – twice as many as Rock Band and Rock Band 2 combined.

The 2000′s decade has been the most populated in all four Rock Band games: Rock Band had 24 songs from the 00′s (41%), Rock Band 2 had 30 (36%), LEGO Rock Band had 23 (51%) and Rock Band 3 has 25 (30%).

In both Rock Band and Rock Band 2, the 60′s decade was the least populated, followed closely by the 80′s. With Rock Band 3′s setlist however, the 80′s decade is the joint-second highest, with 19 songs (23%), compared to 7 in Rock Band (12%) and 15 in Rock Band 2 (19%).

Seven of the songs in Rock Band 3 couldn’t have been in the original Rock Band as they are all newer than the game, released later than November 2007. Five of those songs couldn’t have even been on Rock Band 2!

• Poni Hoax – “Antibodies” released in June 2008
• Ida Maria – “Oh My God” originally released in July 2008
• Tokio Hotel – “Humanoid” released in October 2009
• Raveonettes – “Last Dance” released in October 2009
• Phoenix – “Lasso” released in May 2009
• Them Crooked Vultures – “Dead End Friends” released in November 2009
• Hypernova – “Viva La Resistance” released in April 2010

Hypernova – “Viva La Resistance” is the first song from the ‘10s decade to be included on disc. Which is understandable, really. It’s by no means the first from this decade in the entire Rock Band library though; including RBN releases, that total exceeds 150 already.

Song Length

I’m sure it will surprise no one at all to hear that “Free Bird” is the longest song in RB3. What may surprise you is how long its nearest rival is – only thirty-three seconds shorter! The five longest songs in the game are:

• Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Free Bird” – 9:03
• Yes – “Roundabout” – 8:30
• The B-52s – “Rock Lobster” – 6:49
• Golden Earring – “Radar Love” – 6:21
• Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody” – 5:55

If you pre-order RB3 from Gamestop, you receive a free download token for three songs (see here for more details), one of which is “Blue Monday” by New Order, which clocks in at 7:29.

In total, there are fifteen songs on the setlist that are longer than 5:00. On the flipside of that, there are twelve songs that are shorter than 3:00.

While you might expect the Ramones song on the setlist to be the shortest, there are in fact four that are shorter:

• The Vines – “Get Free” – 2:06
• The Bronx – “False Alarm” – 2:12
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Crosstown Traffic” – 2:26
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – “I Need To Know” – 2:27
• Ramones – “I Wanna Be Sedated” – 2:29

Album Facts

Seventeen of the songs are from the artist’s debut album:

• Big Country – “In A Big Country” from the album The Crossing
• The Bronx – “False Alarm” from the album The Bronx (2003)
• Dio – “Rainbow in the Dark” from the album Holy Diver
• Foreigner – “Cold as Ice” from the album Foreigner
• Hypernova – “Viva La Resistance” from the album Through the Chaos
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Free Bird” from the album Lynyrd Skynyrd (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-’nérd ‘Skin-’nérd)
• Stone Temple Pilots – “Plush” from the album Core
• The Sounds – “Living in America” from the album Living in America
• Them Crooked Vultures – “Dead End Friends” from the album Them Crooked Vultures
• The Vines – “Get Free” from the album Highly Evolved

For the following seven songs, not only are they from the artist’s debut album, but they were in fact released as their debut single:

• The B-52s – “Rock Lobster” from the album The B-52s
• The Doors – “Break on Through (To The Other Side)” from the album The Doors
• Filter – “Hey Man, Nice Shot” from the album Short Bus
• Ida Maria – “Oh My God” from the album Fortress Round My Heart
• Ozzy Osbourne – “Crazy Train” from the album Blizzard of Ozz
• Smashmouth – “Walkin’ on the Sun” from the album Fush Yu Mang
• Spacehog – “In the Meantime” from the album Resident Alien

Eight of the songs are the title tracks of an album. Those songs (and albums) are:

• Steve Miller Band – “Fly Like An Eagle”
• Tokio Hotel – “Humanoid”
• Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”
• John Lennon – “Imagine”
• The Sounds – “Living In America”
• David Bowie – “Space Oddity”
• Tegan and Sera – “The Con”
• The Flaming Lips – “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1”

Harmonix Loves Dave Grohl

But to be fair, who doesn’t?! Harmonix love him so much that once Rock Band 3 releases, there will be whopping 46 songs in the library that he performs on:

• All twenty-five Foo Fighters songs
• Two Them Crooked Vultures tracks
• Twelve of Nirvana‘s songs
• As the drummer on one of the Nine Inch Nails tracks
• As the drummer on two of the Queens of the Stone Age songs
• As the drummer on all four Tenacious D tracks

Sticking with Grohl; he has now appeared at least twice on each game’s setlist.

• In Rock Band: Nirvana – “In Bloom,” Foo Fighters – “Learn to Fly” and Queens of the Stone Age – “Go With The Flow”
• In Rock Band 2: Foo Fighters – “Everlong,” Nirvana – “Drain You” and Tenacious D – “Master Exploder”
• In Rock Band 3: Them Crooked Vultures – “Dead End Friends” and Queens of the Stone Age – “No One Knows”

Sadly, he only appeared once on the LEGO Rock Band setlist with Foo Fighters – “Breakout.” But to be fair, it had that smallest setlist of any Rock Band game to date.

Awards

Huey Lewis and the News – “The Power of Love” was written for the movie Back to the Future, and was a nominee in the Academy Award for Best Song category in 1985. There are three other songs in the Rock Band library that were also nominated for an Oscar:

• Counting Crows – “Accidentally in Love” nominated in 2004 for the movie Shrek 2
• Ray Parker Jr. – “Ghostbusters” nominated in 1984 for the movie Ghostbusters
• Survivor – “Eye of the Tiger” nominated in 1982 for the movie Rocky III

Four of songs in RB3 have won Grammy Awards:

• The Police – “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” won Best Rock Performance in 1981
• Stone Temple Pilots – “Plush” won Best Hard Rock Performance in 1994
• Slipknot – “Before I Forget” won Best Metal Performance in 2005
• Amy Winehouse – “Rehab” won Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2007

Similarly, four albums that contain songs from the Rock Band 3 setlist have won Grammy Awards:

• The White Stripes – Elephant won Best Alternative Music Album in 2003, which features the song “The Hardest Button to Button”
• Amy Winehouse – Back To Black won Best Pop Vocal Album in 2007, which features the song “Rehab”
• Juanes – La Vida… Es Un Ratico won Best Latin Pop Album in 2007, which features the song “Me Enamora”
• Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix won Best Alternative Music Album in 2009, which features the song “Lasso”

Eight of the artists on the setlist have been awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In chronological order: John Lennon in 1991, James Brown and Jimi Hendrix in 1992, The Beach Boys, Bob Marley and The Who in 2001, David Bowie in 2006 and most recently, The Doors in 2007.

The exact same list of artists above have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside seven other RB3 artists: Elton John, Queen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Ramones, The Police, Blondie and Lynyrd Skynyrd .

Guitar Hero

Seven songs on the RB3 setlist previously appeared on Harmonix-developed Guitar Hero games:

• In Guitar Hero:
  • Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – “I Love Rock and Roll”
  • Ramones – “I Wanna Be Sedated”
  • QOTSA – “No One Knows”
  • Deep Purple – “Smoke on the Water”
• In Guitar Hero II:
  • Avenged Sevenfold – “Beast and the Harlot”
  • Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Free Bird”
• In Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s:
  • Anthrax – “Caught in a Mosh”

In total (including the above seven), there are now currently 39 songs in the Rock Band library that were previously featured on a Harmonix Guitar Hero game.

In terms of the entire Guitar Hero library, the Rock Band 3 setlist contains 22 songs that were previously featured in either a Guitar Hero game (including Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock) or released as DLC within that franchise.

Conversely, the Warriors of Rock setlist contains 20 songs that are already in the RB library (for the moment, at least…) as well as 3 songs previously available in Rock Revolution – not that anyone cares about that game. No, I mean Rock Revolution! Ahem.

Rock Band 3 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’s setlist only share four songs:

• Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”
• Phoenix – “Lasso”
• Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
• The Vines – “Get Free”

Thankfully, four is a much lower and more tolerable number after the thirteen that Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour shared. Funnily enough, “Get Free” was previously in the DS version of Band Hero.

Grand Theft Auto

The Grand Theft Auto games always have notably awesome music featured on their radio stations, so it’s probably no surprise that there’s a handful of songs featured in both Rock Band 3 and a GTA game – nine to be precise.

In GTA: San Andreas:

• Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Free Bird” featured on the K-DST radio station
• War – “Low Rider” featured on Master Sounds 98.3
• Faith No More – “Midlife Crisis” featured on Radio X
• Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing” featured on Radio X
• Stone Temple Pilots – “Plush” featured on Radio X

In GTA: Vice City:

• Night Ranger – “Sister Christian” featured on Emotion 98.3

In GTA: Vice City Stories:

• Blondie – “Heart of Glass” featured on The Wave 103

In GTA IV:

• The Doobie Brothers – “China Grove” featured on Liberty Rock Radio 97.8
• Roxette – “The Look” featured on Vice City FM

Miscellaneous Facts

While the majority of the songs with Keys parts are played by keyboards and/or synthesizers, there are a handful of exceptions: eleven songs are played on piano, six on an electric organ and two on a mellotron.

Yes’ most famous and influential keyboardist, the legendary Rick Wakemen, plays all the keyboard, synth and organ parts on “Roundabout.” A prolific session musician, he also plays the mellotron in David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” as well as the keyboard on T. Rex’s “Ride A White Swan,” (which was in LEGO Rock Band), as well as working with other Rock Band 3 artists Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John and Queen’s Brian May.

Twelve of the songs have a female lead vocalist, which is approximately 14% of the entire setlist. Rock Band’s setlist had seven (12%), and Rock Band 2’s had fourteen (17%).

While RB3 artist Chicago are named after the city in which they formed, the same can’t be said for Rammstein, The Bronx or Dover – despite sharing their names with a famous town or borough, none of the bands are actually from those locations.

Nine of the songs in Rock Band 3 have appeared in an episode of The Simpsons.

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” is credited to the whole band, whereas Rock Band 2’s “Bad Reputation” was just credited to Joan Jett. Likewise “I Need to Know” is credited to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, whereas LEGO Rock Band’s “Free Fallin’” and two of his previous DLC tracks were just Tom Petty.

British musician Mark Ronson famously covered The Smiths‘ “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” – which is a wonderful irony. Ronson was the producer of Amy Winehouse‘s Back In Black album, which “Rehab” is taken from.

Following the death of Jim Morrison, former The Doors members John Densmore and Robby Krieger founded The Butts Band (seriously), who performed a cover of Bob Marley & the Wailers – “Get Up, Stand Up” on their second album.

Rock Band 3 artists Ozzy Osbourne and Dio are the two most famous and prominent vocalists of Black Sabbath, but after Dio left the band in 1982, the Sabbath hired former Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan, who also features on the Rock Band 3 setlist.

“Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)” is much more of a hard rock song than most of Elton John‘s catalogue, and has been covered by a number of rock bands because of that, most notably Queen and The Who.

The Flaming Lips recorded a version of Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody” for a Queen tribute album released in 2005.

Echo & The Bunnymen‘s “The Killing Moon” was prominently used in Donnie Darko, and featured on the movie’s soundtrack alongside songs from INXS and Tears for Fears. All three bands are making their Rock Band debut on the Rock Band 3 setlist.

Keen zoologists may have already noticed that the Rock Band 3 setlist contains seven animals.

Fifteen of the songs contain the word “the” in their title – two more than in Rock Band 2’s setlist. Fifteen of the artists are “The” bands, which is four more than Rock Band 2 and three more than Rock Band. (This is potentially the most useless fact of all.)

And Finally…

There will be a total of over 2,000 songs in the entire Rock Band library by the time Rock Band 3 releases…

…but “Hysteria” is still the only Muse song.

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