One of the main selling points for Rock Band 2 is that it'll let you play almost all of your Rock Band 1 songs*. The "almost" refers to developer Harmonix's caveat that not all of the songs from the Rock Band 1 disc will transfer. There are some licensing issues that even our collective five bucks can't handle.

Today, the hold-outs were revealed. Of the 58 songs on Rock Band 1, 55 will transfer directly into Rock Band 2*. The no-shows are Metallica's "Enter Sandman", the cover of Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills", and the cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid". I would say it's a shame about not getting "Paranoid", but frankly, it was just a cover and there are three actual Sabbath songs available as downloadable content. It's also worth noting that there are three downloadable Metallica songs available, so those guys are still fully represented in Rock Band 2. The only other Iron Maiden song is a cover of "Number of the Beast", so those guys were technically never around anyway. And, really, look at them (pictured above). Do you really want to pretend to be those guys?

However, as songs, I won't miss "Run to the Hills" or "Enter Sandman" one bit. To those songs, I say 'And stay out', 'Don't let the door hit you on the way out', 'Good riddance', 'Hasta la vista, baby', and various other pithy embittered things you say when someone you don't like leaves. If I had a nickel for every time I failed those songs, I could probably license them myself*.

* If you help pay the licensing fee by coughing up $5.