Foo Fighters recorded their cover of Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” on April 30, 1997, during a BBC Radio 1 Evening Session at Maida Vale Studios in London. MusicBrainz’s session data and JamBase’s account identify that date and location. The cover’s return to television in October 2026 revived a recording and arrangement with nearly three decades of history—it was not the unveiling of a newly recorded studio cover.
A 1997 BBC Session, Not a New Recording
Foo Fighters performed “Baker Street” shortly before the release of The Colour and the Shape, the album that included “My Hero” and “Everlong.” Their rendition was captured as a BBC session performance rather than during the album’s standard recording sessions.
That distinction helps explain why the track spent years in the less-visible corners of the Foo Fighters catalog. It was not part of the original running order of The Colour and the Shape. Listeners were more likely to encounter it on a limited bonus disc, a single, an expanded reissue or a collector-focused release than as a conventional album cut.
The version released on the British “My Hero” single runs 5:37 and preserves the live-in-the-studio character associated with the BBC session. Instead of treating Rafferty’s composition as a polished new single, Foo Fighters recast it through their louder, guitar-driven approach.
When Did the Cover First Reach Listeners?
The earliest documented commercial appearance came before the “My Hero” single.
MusicBrainz’s release catalog dates a European edition of The Colour and the Shape with a four-track bonus EP to November 17, 1997. Louder and the Dutch music catalog Muziekweb also identify the limited bonus edition as a November 1997 release containing “Baker Street.”
The cover then appeared on the British CD-maxi edition of “My Hero,” released on January 19, 1998. MusicBrainz and the Irish Charts catalog list “Baker Street” on that edition as a 5:37 live recording.
The documented chronology therefore places the limited European bonus EP first, followed by the UK “My Hero” single two months later. Both releases drew from the April 1997 BBC session rather than a separate studio recording.
How “Baker Street” Moved Through the Catalog
The cover became easier to find as Foo Fighters revisited their archives.
In 2007, it appeared on the remastered 10th-anniversary special edition of The Colour and the Shape. MusicBrainz dates that 19-track edition to July 10, 2007, while NME’s contemporary announcement lists “Baker Street” among its six bonus tracks. That placement introduced the recording to listeners who may never have encountered the 1997 bonus EP or British “My Hero” single.
The song surfaced again in 2011 on Medium Rare, a collection of Foo Fighters covers issued for Record Store Day. Banquet Records and NME both list “Baker Street” in the compilation’s track sequence, while JamBase identifies it as the same BBC-session recording.
Those appearances did not represent new recordings. They were new homes for the archival 1997 performance.
Why the Cover Seemed New Again in 2026
Catalog recordings can appear to be new when their availability changes. A track may exist on an older CD, appear on one edition of an album but not another, or be accessible through streaming services only in selected territories.
Consequence and Louder reported on October 30, 2026, that Foo Fighters’ “Baker Street” had reached or returned to major digital services. The recording also appears in digital catalogs connected to the expanded edition of The Colour and the Shape. Those sources establish renewed digital availability, but they do not prove that October 2026 marked the recording’s first appearance on streaming services.
There is also an important difference between a new recording and a newly promoted catalog track. Foo Fighters did not return to the studio to remake “Baker Street” in 2026. A prominent live rendition, followed by renewed digital access, was enough to make the 1997 recording feel newly visible.
The Cover Returns to the Stage
The last documented Foo Fighters performance of “Baker Street” before 2026 took place in Manchester on November 3, 2007. Consequence identifies that Manchester show as the previous performance, and Setlist.fm’s concert record places the cover in the encore at the Manchester Evening News Arena.
Foo Fighters brought it back on October 17, 2026, during the Silverlake Conservatory of Music’s 25th-anniversary benefit at the Hollywood Palladium. JamBase reports the performance, while Ticketmaster’s event record confirms the benefit’s date and venue.
Less than two weeks later, Foo Fighters closed a four-night Jimmy Kimmel Live! residency with the song. ABC’s official performance index dates the televised rendition to October 29, while Consequence and JamBase identify it as the residency’s finale.
The band had performed “Window” on October 26, “This Is a Call” on October 27 and “Your Favorite Toy” on October 28. Ending with “Baker Street” gave the run an archival surprise connected to the band’s 1997 history rather than a newly created release.
The Gerry Rafferty Original
Gerry Rafferty wrote and sang the original “Baker Street,” released on his 1978 album City to City. Apple Music and Qobuz date the album to January 20, 1978. Qobuz’s label-supplied credits and the official Gerry Rafferty/Parlophone audio credits name Rafferty and Hugh Murphy as producers and Raphael Ravenscroft as the saxophonist.
The song became Rafferty’s signature recording. The Official Charts Company places its British peak at No. 3. JamBase and an Associated Press report carried by CBS document its No. 2 peak in the United States.
Foo Fighters did not attempt a restrained reproduction. Their version translated the song into the band’s own rock vocabulary while retaining the melodic identity that made Rafferty’s original immediately recognizable.
An Old Recording With a Long Afterlife
The simplest answer remains the most important: Foo Fighters recorded “Baker Street” on April 30, 1997, at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios.
Its later history shows why release dates do not always tell the whole story. The recording moved through a November 1997 bonus EP, a January 1998 UK single, a 2007 anniversary edition and the 2011 Record Store Day collection Medium Rare before returning to the stage in 2026. Renewed digital access then brought it back to listeners who could easily have mistaken it for a recent recording.
The real story is not that Foo Fighters suddenly covered “Baker Street.” It is that an old BBC session kept finding new routes into the band’s catalog—and, nearly 30 years later, back into public attention.
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