Another fan of Jules Holland and his musical presentations here. It’s the only chance I’ve had in recent years to see good old Dave Edmunds play live.
I don’t think I’ve seen anything that made my jaw drop the way it did when I watched Michael Jackson do the Moonwalk while performing “Billie Jean” during the “Motown 25” special.
Death Cab for Cutie on Letterman. Hands down.
If you can, go and see him on Broadway …he is in a concert performance with Patti…DUDE his rendidtion of " Oh what a Circus" was EFFING amazing!
PBS ran a Joe Bonamassa concert a few months ago that blew me away. But probably the best music I’ve seen on TV, excluding classical or opera, was the Eagles’ “Hell Freezes Over.”
My contribution, kd lang at a tawdry Australian awards night:
I don’t know how this song could possibly be sung better.
How about a little Neil LeVang guitar action, from Lawrence Welk of all places.
First I have to thank the OP for providing a link to the Elvis Costello SNL performance. I read a couple of times about that incident, but never found it online.
My contribution is another SNL performance, Neil Young’s absolutely wild and stunning rendition of “Rockin’ in the Free World” from 1989. Here’s a blog post providing some background to the performance, in which it is referred to as “one of the most intense live television studio performances ever”.
Of course!
Don’t know if this counts as a tv performance, but I saw it on TV!
Marc Anthony- national anthem
That is an amazing song.
I love the way he has to unbutton his coat at the end to get it all out:)
Another Patinkin fan. I’ve heard rumors that he’s “difficult” to work with as an actor, hence one of the reasons we don’t see more of him, but yowza, what a voice. I still remember a snippet from Chicago Hope where his character sits down and starts banging out Coffee in a Cardboard Cup. Amazing.
I remember the K T Tunstall performance linked to above. She’s luverly, that one.
U2 at Live Aid. It’s easy now to view U2 as a band that takes itself too seriously and blah blah blah. But that performance is what took them to supergroup level. They’d been very big before that but Bono channeled something absolutely primal in his connection with his audience that day. During ‘Bad’ when he loses control you can tell he’s not even there, pretty much, his head is on a different plane…one that needs the audience more than it needs him. It’s a rare thing to see and worth every second.
Three dog night… 1975 performance on Soundstage… wow miss that show… I would love to get a dvd of the complete performance… clip is here and there on youtube… but they sound fanstastic…
I like to put in a plug for Dan Hick’s Beatin’ the Heat album when given half an opportunity. Guest performances by Brian Setzer, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Bette Midler and Rickie Lee Jones and nobody wastes their shots. No mediocre cuts and several excellent ones.
Maybe favorite TV performance: TMBG doing Birdhouse in Your Soul with Doc Severinson. More for the horns and the song than for the Johns, but they do fine as well. The previously linked video of Cyndy Lauper covering Carey is also very nice.
Wyclef Jean covering Johnny Cash in a Tribute Special. First time I heard it I was like damnnn!!
I was in high school and already a big U2 fan when that aired, but that performance actually brought tears to my eyes.
I think I’m in love…
There was a special on PBS in 1957 called The Sound of Jazz. In addition to solid performances by artists in their prime like Gerry Mulligan and Count Basie, it also included a touching exchange between Billie Holiday and Lester Young, both of whom had deteriorated badly by 1957. Holiday and Young had both become erratic and could not stand one another, but this performance brought out the best in each of them.
Within two years, they would both be dead.
I can’t locate the YouTube versions of a couple of recent PBS shows featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue so I will come in with one a little down my list.
Look around for other clips from TOMMY EMMANUEL CENTER STAGE (2008) - LIVE CD at YouTube’s Sierra Center Stage - Tommy Emmanuel - Guitar Boogie and if you care anything about guitar there’s apt to be something there for you.
Tommy is God’s Advisor on guitar.
Holy crap! Is all their stuff that good?
This is the performance that turned Adele from star into supermegastar in the UK.