I also just remembered Paul Simon and George Harrison performing Here Comes The Sun and Homeward Bound in 1976. Pretty cool.
That was a great performance, 40 years after the Talking Heads first played SNL. I remember my sister telling me in 1979 about some weird band she saw, with a bug-eyed singer who just stared at the camera. Somehow I saw it (early VCR? rerun?) and it opened a new world of music for me.
Sorry for the video quality - I think they cropped it and made it shaky to avoid NBC’s copyright filters.
That diner has incredible set design. Also, some may have heard this story before, but this sketch sat on the shelf for a decade. It was Mulaney’s & Jost’s, and it was rejected. It was OK’d when Mulaney came back to host.
Here’s the follow-up, Bodega Bathroom.
Holy shit, that kicked ass. A few days back, I went looking for a musical performance of Neil from 1982-1983 that I remembered. Think it was a concert recorded on his Trans tour, and I think it was in Berlin. I remember Nils Lofgren was with him. It’s not on Youtube, unfortunately.
Since you reminded me of Vimeo, here’s Queen performing, “Under Pressure.”
Edie Brickell met her future husband Paul Simon backstage when she did her set with the New Bohemians.
Back in Season 1, before the format was as tight as we know it today, on of the earliest musical guests, ABBA, suffered the indignity of having their performance combined with a Michael O’Donoghue-written sketch about them being the dance band on the Titanic. The monitor kept cutting to Robert Klein thrashing around and spitting water.
Some groups (like the Lockers) managed to incorporate technical problems into their set. One (John Sebastian) crashed and burned and had to start over.
I doubt it, too, as that would certainly earn him a trip to NBC’s HR office tout suite.
As an aside, Cecily Strong and I have something in common: we were both born in Springfield, Illinois. Her family had moved to the Chicago burbs by the time she was about 3, whereas it took my ass decades to get out of that town.
And the follow-up to that; Airport Sushi.
John Mulaney has become one of the best hosts in recent years and someone to always look forward to seeing on the show (kind of like how Justin Timberlake was always fun to watch, such as in his Homelessville sketch).
Prince at the 2015 SNL after party. Maya Rudolph is having the time of her life.
OK, this isn’t very seasonal, but in season 24, episode 9, December 12 1998 with Alec Baldwin hosting, Luciano Pavarotti, Vanessa Williams and a boys’ choir sang O Come All Ye Faithful (I can only find it on the NBC website, not on YouTube).
I happened to be watching this live. Well, not live since it was on AFN when I was stationed in Germany in '93, but I think it was a great performance by Aerosmith.
I liked that a lot, and having Eric Idle do the intro and, I think, a pre-Letterman Paul Shaffer on piano accompaniment were bonuses.
I wish there was video of this online: Madeline Kahn & Howard Shore’s All-Monster Band
performing “I Feel Pretty"
And Pete Davidson was famously engaged to Ariana Grande, who met on the show. . .and of course, Jost and Scarlett Johansson are engaged.
Dearly inebriated indeed! Their after-parties are legendary.
Those Italians. . . it’s like they have a different word for everything (apologies to Steve Martin.)
Eleven years of seasonal music from Horatio and the gang - and some special guests about 7:30 in. Not quite the same level of professionalism as the above link, but I always liked it nonetheless. They had to have stolen their choreography from Peanuts cartoons.
I’ve always been partial to Steve Martin and Gilda Radner doing Dancing in the Dark. I think I first saw it when he hosted after her death and played it as a tribute to her. They do so much without any words. I think it’s a brilliant combination of elegance and comedy.
I just now noticed her right foot’s in a cast. That’s a pretty energetic performance for someone with only one good leg.
Speaking of Christmas music:
Winter Wonderland with the original cast plus Candice Bergen. Not because it’s necessarily an outstanding performance, but look how much fun they’re all having. This sort of joy is missing from the show today.
Maybe because they’re not doing as many drugs nowadays?
There aren’t any, Pete Davidson already did them all.
That one is great. Not great singing, only Garrett Morris had any talent at all, but it was really fun. When the bass sax steps in with women Jane Curtin looks a little perturbed, but you can see Gilda Radner going at it with utter joy at the same time. And Howard Shore and his Band of Angels, too, couldn’t be better.
It’s not as loose, it’s more tightly produced, and maybe there’s more pressure, since they’re not breaking ground and creating a show, but trying to fit into a successful show with a long tradition. There are still moments of fun on the show, but there isnt’ as much room.
Can’t win here, IMO. Ppl used to complain about Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, etc. laughing and breaking, and when the cast doesn’t, then they’re not having fun. . .
I’ve never been able to find this performance online, but I remember the Go-Go’s performing on SNL and they sounded terrible. I chalked it up to them just not being a good live band or perhaps the single was over produced. Found out later that, well I’ll let Belinda explain: