Too bad you couldn't include two INXS selections; Not only does “Never Tear Us Apart” have a great little sax solo, but in the video, it's done in a graveyard!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOnYAG2HPI

Looking at it from this far along, it's easy to tell that Clemons is an all right but not great saxophonist, but man could he ever stand next to his employer and strike a pose that said, “Rock&roll.”

Actually, one of my blog readers pointed one out to me the other day. “A Night in New York” by Elbow Bones and the Racketeers has nice little alto sax solo. The band was a front for August Darnelll (Kid Creole and the Coconuts). This reader got in touch with one of Kid Creole's regular sax players and confirmed that well-known jazzbo Paquito D'Rivera played the solo.

And of course, as almost everyone here knows, Richie Connata couldn't quite pull off the iconic solo on Billy Joel's “Just the Way You Are.” So Phil Ramone (who, in one of his first jobs, was the engineer on the classic Getz/Gilberto album) called in jazz saxophonist Phil Woods to do the duty. I often wonder if he was tempted to try to get Getz — who several years later did a killer job on Diane Schuur's cover of “New York State of Mind.” What a combination that would have been.