34: Saturday Night Live launches with musical guests
When it premiered October 11, 1975 Saturday Night Live was cutting-edge comedy. It was as though a bunch of young smart hipsters had hijacked the airwaves from their parents. Thirty-two years later, the program is still on—an amazing feat—even though some would argue it’s lost its luster. Still, Saturday Night Live has always supplied the public with top-notch musical guests and is still considered a hot gig for musicians.
Back on that debut broadcast, Janis Ian and Billy Preston were the first musical guests. They may not have made history but some performers have: On SNL’s second episode, Paul Simon hosted and his old partner — and sometimes nemesis — Art Garfunkel dropped by for an impromptu rendition of “The Boxer.” In 1992, NBC switchboards went wild when Sinead O’Connor ripped a picture of the pope to shreds after she sang an acapella version of Bob Marley’s “War.” And of course let’s not forget Ashleygate…the time Ashley Simpson was caught lip-synching (to the wrong song) and walked off stage seconds after the start of her performance.
Randy Newman has been a guest on SNL several times. Here he is performing a song that got him into trouble.
The Onion’s Ten Memorable Saturday Night Live Musical Moments
One of my suggestions for an MMMM was from SNL. Joe Cocker was the musical guest. He came out and started singing “Feelin’ Alright?”. John Belushi then appeared on stage dressed just like him and did a better Joe than Joe, causing Joe to kick his schtick into high gear. It was priceless.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:42 amOne of my most favorite musical moment on SNL was when Steve Martin came back to host it, sometime around 1994-95. It was the beginning of the show. Rather than doing a monologue, it starts with him back stage, acting like a jerk to the rest of the cast in regards to just “phoning it in”, and then someone brings out the old King Tut costume, which conjures up memories, and starts on a musical act with the whole cast, including Christ Farley singing “I’m not gonna get liquored up tonight”
October 18th, 2007 at 9:47 am