Billy Joel 6-Pack Planned for Spring 2011
Six-pack and Billy Joel in the same sentence. Who saw that coming? (How about anyone living on Long Island.)
Anyway, “Billy Joel Week” continues here for the Rock Band community as a number of people sent me a link to a press release supposedly from Columbia / Legacy Recordings yesterday mentioning the following item:
Rock Band is excited to offer a new Billy Joel edition of the popular video game [huh?], providing a masterful keyboard experience of his music to fans around the world through two downloadable game packs: a “Hits” pack of 12 songs arriving in December 2010 followed by a 6-song “Piano Challenge” pack in the spring.
While we already found out about the 12-pack (only 10 have been confirmed thus far), the 6-pack is new to us. And what’s with the “offer a new Billy Joel edition” comment? I get that the press release is more for Billy Joel fans than Rock Band fans, but can we at least have someone in the know to do a quick once-over on these before they go out?
[PRNewswire.com, first sent to me from "BathTub," Thanks!]
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6 more is nice but I like you just the way you are
Some people on the ScoreHero forums pointed out when this showed up that the 6-pack might not be just Billy Joel. It could be a mix of artists like Elton John and such with difficult keyboard songs. The author of the article clearly doesn’t know much about RB since they get the technical details wrong, like mentioning a “Billy Joel edition” of RB when it’s clearly just a big DLC pack.
RockBandAide Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 10:45 am
VERY good point here!!!
James! Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 11:08 am
Makes sense. A 12-pack, then another 6-pack not half a year later? Sounds like a bit much for one artist.
RockBandAide Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 11:16 am
It’s Billy Joel, though. The guy had over 30 Top 40 hits. Like him or not, he was VERY popular in the late 70s and 80s. I don’t think 18 songs from an artist like him would be out of line.
James! Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 12:30 pm
My point was more that it’s too much too soon. Remember the backlash against the second Tom Petty 6-Pack in January? Same thing. Don’t get me wrong, Billy Joel has good songs out there that would be a great fit for post-RB3 DLC. But let’s set his songs aside for a while and let other artists have their day.
And if you want to argue Billboard, the cast of Glee just surpassed The Beatles’ record for most songs charted only a few weeks ago.
Xzyliac Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Isn’t Glee getting their own game? Didn’t the Beatles get their own game?
I’m siding with RBA on this one. I mean Joel seemed really into the idea of having his music in RB in that interview from a few days ago.
Mind you, I don’t think the 6-Pack is exclusively Joel but I do agree that I could see large packs of Billy Joel songs happening on more than one occasion.
I mean we have a Greatest Hits album of his around the house somewhere and it’s at least 40 songs. They’re all pretty damn good too, they’re all pretty popular (we pop it into the shuffle at parties and nearly everyone has a blast), and they’re from a pretty wide range of his discography.
It could happen. Don’t underestimate the Billy Joel. And never try to make sense of Harmonix. Just roll with it.
RockBandAide Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Everything that Xzyliac said, but also remember that these are just ANNOUNCEMENTS of his DLC. It doesn’t come out until December and then next spring. There will be a LOT of amazing stuff in between then.
T Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 8:27 am
The “backlash” regarding Tom Petty was from the Forums. A place where anything and EVERYTHING recieves backlash regardless of how much of a problem it actually is.
Thankfully HMX appears to have realized this.
Croq Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 11:30 am
Truthfully, if we’re going to get more Elton John, he definitely deserves his own pack too (at LEAST 12). Both Billy and Elton have *tons* of hits and would be a huge boon to play on keyboards.
Piano Challenge pack? Interesting…
I’m curious as to what happens to notes that don’t fit within those 2 octaves.
Alex Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 10:38 am
… yea… bummer.
I wish the keyboard was 3 octaves. That would be just enough to fit in the good stuff.
Croq Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 11:31 am
I assume they’ll just drop or raise the affected notes an octave. Not a perfect solution, but there’s only so much you can do with 25 keys.
Okay, someone’s gotta say it. Could those jeans *be* any tighter?
Andre Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 10:43 am
If you’re Christina Aguillera, the answer is “always”.
Croq Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 10:45 am
Good point.
Game!Ov3r Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 11:03 am
Christina yes!!! Billy no… I would take camel toe over smuggled grapes any day!
Croq Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 11:33 am
“Smuggled grapes”??? Thanks for that visual … ugh!
Sans Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 1:46 pm
You lost me at Billy.
“Piano Challenge”, eh?
Prelude/Angry Young Man (Turnstiles)
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant (The Stranger)
The Ballad Of Billy The Kid (Piano Man)
My Life (52nd Street)
Allentown (The Nylon Curtain)
I Go To Extremes (Storm Front)
I personally like to think the Billy Joel edition thing is just thong in cheek.
You know… Oh, you can play piano in it, so it’s a Billy Joel game!
But it’s probably not so.
Sans Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Thong in cheek? New or used? Really I don’t want to know, Ill pass anyway..
Keyboardists rejoice.
If there’s gonna be a challenging piano song for Billy Joel, they’ve got to add Angry Young Man. The speed of that opening piano man, that thing is Insane!
For further precedent, The Foo Fighters’ The Colour and the Shape album was released about 7 weeks before Foo Fighters Pack 01, and the same with Spinal Tap Pack 01 and Spinal Tap’s Tap Ten.
All this said, considering the gusto that Billy Joel apparently entered the platform with (Even reading it, you can kind of get the idea of how much he liked this idea).
Obviously the Billy Joel “Edition” must mean that he will have his own branded keyboard – The Billy Joel “Edition”. It comes with a cup holder for your favorite beverage and a tool to help pry you out of your supertight denims. This would give you a second keyboard for the Piano Challenges.
Drpepperfan Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 2:55 pm
If you order the special edition of the Keyboard, it comes with your very own Billy Joel White Afro wig.
Boogaloo Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 5:08 pm
If you pre-order at Gamestop you get an exclusive Christie Brinkley blow up doll
James! Reply:
October 21st, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Pre-order NOW and it even comes with realistic car-wreck damage.
Cactaur Reply:
October 22nd, 2010 at 12:20 am
Be sure to play it at the bar so they can put bread in your jar!
Remember when there were rumors that we were getting a Jimi Hendrix: Rock Band? It seems like a similar situation.
With the addition of the keyboard, Billy Joel and Elton John songs are a no brainer. Also wuld like to see more Journey