Robbie Robertson and Bruce Hornsby were musical guests in the early 1990’s and did a killer THE WEIGHT, also didn’t Axl play with Tom Petty? I know David Grohl was a honorary Heartbreaker once on SNL.

My brother got to see a dress rehearsal and the musical guest was Michael Bolton! He was pissed that he missed REM by one week.

1) The Replacements in 1985(?)
2) Prince playing “Fury” in 2006.
3) P-Funk with guest Thomas Dolby in ‘86
4) Brian Wilson in 1977 (?)
5) Beastie Boys backing Costello for one of the anniversary shows, reprising the “Radio Radio” bit, interrupting the start of “Sabotage.”

The photo for the story captures it nicely – Paul Simon and his “good friend” George, performing two songs.

Then there’s the nearly impossible to find Bette Midler performance of ‘Martha’ – the one that made Tom Waits drop the song from his own shows, as he could never top her cover.

And who could forget that legendary performance by the Spin Doctors?

One of these things is not like the other…

-Neil Young’s 1989 performance of “Rockin in the Free World”
-Frank Zappa in 1977(?)
-Tom Petty in 1995 with Dave Grohl
-Oasis’ 1997 performance of “Acquiesce”
-The Blues Brothers (and Paul Shaffer’s impersonation of Don Johnson)
-Pearl Jam in 1994

I ask you, what IS better than ‘more cowbell’? Christopher Walken’s preformance as Bruce Dickinson is the best music moment on SNL. Ever.

David Bowie’s “Scary Monster’s” appearance had a dorm room full of kids sitting around and watching — remember when the show had that kind of currency?

U2 in Dec 2000, doing “Elevation” and throwing in snatches of “Instant Karma” in honor of the 20th anniversary of John Lennon’s death…..also Bono telling Val Kilmer “come on baby light my fire” as he watched from the side….

1. Van Morrison in 1978 singing “Wavelength.” Killer.

2. Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger doing “Walk and Don’t Look Back.”

I still love Queen’s performance of Crazy Little Thing Called Love. I think it sounded better than the album version.

Pearl Jams performance of “porch” in the early 90s, when Eddie Vedder pulled up his sleeve to reveal “pro-choice” while changing the lyrics around to fit the message.

eddie vedder is a no talent alcoholic dirtbag

1)Sinead: “fight the real enemy”
2)Patti Smith doing “Gloria”
3)Simon and Harrison
4)the Lorne Michaels $3,000 offer to the Beatles AND the follow-ups when Harrison and McCartney, respectively, were on the show
5)Bill Murray as Nick the Lounge Singer doing “Star Wars”
6)Steve Martin doing King Tut
7)Neil Young doing “Rockin’ in the Free World”
8)Tyrone Green (Eddie Murphy) and his Reggae Band playing “Kill the White People”
9)The Cowboy Junkies doing “Sweet Jane”
10)Elvis Costello doing the “Radio Radio” thing

The B-52’s doing “Rock Lobster” in 1978 or 1979 or so. I was in 6th grade. I went to the store on Sunday morning and bought the album, on vinyl. Remember vinyl???? Think I wore out side 1, just classic stuff.

I have to add one more…
James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub. Remember, back when Eddie Murphy was funny?

nirvana, rape me

booooooooooooooo

David Bowie’s appearance on the show in 1979 I believe, is excellent. It’s the one where he performs “the Man Who Sold The World” in a David Byrne-esque giant suit then does “Boys Keep Swinging” as a head with a superimposed marionette body. Klaus Nomi was one his backing vocalists.

Sure this is long forgotten, but I was moved to tears when Annie Lennox sang “Why”. Hadn’t heard the song before and it totally blindsided me.

Kudos to Mojo Rising for mentioning “Fury” by Prince. The album version was such a letdown after that.

The Replacements cira Tim album….changing clothes and using that naught word(got them banned). “Kiss Me on the Bus” and “Bastards of Young”.

Paul Westerberg in mid nineties doing “Knockin on Mine” and using the SNL horn section for “Can’t Hardly Wait”. Unbelievably great rock and roll.

Sinead and the Pope (love it or hate it, it was a moment).

Sinead O’Connor tearing up the picture of the Pope was certainly a memorable musical moment.

who could forget faith no more’s performance when mike patton climbed into the fan prop in the background, got out, and made it right back to the mic in time to get back into the song?

i’d love to get recordings of that show.

Oh and one more U2; back in Nov 05 I think it was they played four songs; they ended the show with a raucous “I Will Follow”; SNL cast appropriately gaga and Bono crowd antics include dry humping a cuckoo broad in the first row. As credits finished rolling Bono says “One more” and they lead into “All Because of You” but it cuts off there.

What about Belushi and Joe Cocker performing together. Belushi imitated him perfectly. And who can forget the we want more cowbell skit on the Blue Oyster Cult. Classic Walkin in this one

Beck has had a couple of really great performances. I also think Prince’s “Fury” was devastating.
I really think SNL has done a great job with their music, showing the greats, the newcomers, and inadvertantly exposing the one hit wonders and hacks (Jessica Simpson)

I meant Ashlee, but yeah, Jessica was on with Nick Lachey and that was a nightmare too.

Rancid in 1996 was sweet. Also, how about teh Beastie Boys playing Heart Attack Man in ‘94?

http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=NCTovSYk2Qw

The Dead….Casey Jones…1978

1- The Clash
2- Lou Reed
3- The strokes
4- Queens of the Stone Sage (w/ will Ferrel!!!)
5- Besatie Boys performing 3 Mcs an 1 DJ

For us up here The Tragically Hip’s ‘95 performance of “Grace Too” was something pretty special

Edward Van Halen Circa 86′ Solo with GE Smith.

Dave Grohl drumming w/Petty

Paul Simon anytime is great

radiohead doing the national anthem

REM does “Losing My Religion;” TP & Heartbreakers do “Don’t Do Me Like That” Rickie Lee Jones doing “Chuck E’s in Love” and “Coolsville” did Springsteen do “The Rising” or “Lonesome Day” – also Springsteen doing “Living Proof” also loved Westerburg doing “Can’t Hardly Wait” with the band – great stuff.

I remember vividly when RHCP did Under The Bridge. Yikes!

perform Sabotage, or was that some other show?

U2(Dec 2000)
Played a sort of lazy Beautiful Day for the first song, but came back with an excellent version of Elevation to end the night. Bono raced through the studio as he sang, messing up all the cameramen, and finished with a snippet from Instant Karma (might have been Lennon’s birthday Dec 8th?) Anyway, great performance.

The best performance ever on SNL is Rockin’ In The Free World by Neil Young. Raw energy and powerful performance, especially on a TV show with a studio audience. Only Neil could play to a studio audience as if it were a sold out stadium show.

In the interest of correcting some of these well-meaning posts:

Bono didn’t sing “Come on baby, light my fire” into Val Kilmer’s face on that appearance, it was some improvised lyrics ending with “Break on through, to the other side”.

I sorta remember Bowie’s creepy marionette thing, but I don’t recall the David Byrne big suit? I do recall him performing in a woman’s business skirt and high heels, an outfit very reminiscent of what Dana Carvey would don as the Church Lady years later.

Axl never played with Tom Petty on SNL, that was on the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.

My absoulte favorite musical performance on SNL, and I’m not saying this because the man just died (nor do I even like opera music) – Luciano Pavoratti and Vanessa Williams doing “O Come All Ye Faithful” on the 1998 Christmas show. Very moving.

Close Second (and I’m not even a lover of this kind of music either) – Usher doing “Yeah!” in 2004. You would’ve sworn he was lip-synching the way his voice was so in turn despite the highly aerobic dancing he was doing, but it was most definitely live.

Honorable mentions:

Metallica, “Fuel”

The Donnas, “Take It Off”

Neil Young, “Rockin’ In The Free World”

“I Want It That Way”, Backstreet Boys

U2, “I Will Follow”

Rod Stewart w/ Tina Turner, “Hot Legs”

The White Stripes, “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground”

“Bye Bye Bye”, *NSync (sure seemed like they were singing live too, quite well, despite their high-energy dancing)

Aerosmith, “Janie’s Got A Gun”/”Monkey On My Back”, “Cryin’”/”Sweet Emotion”, “Jaded”/”Big Ten Inch Record” (three separate appearances)

WORST Performance (not counting obviously fake performances by Ashlee Simpson, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, etc.):

The Rolling Stones. They were and still are the World’s Greatest Rock N’ Roll Band to me, but for one brief night in 1978, they almost lost the mantle. Horrific performance.

tom waits eggs and sausage 1978

annie lennox … “why” … moves me to tears at the end every time.

http://youtube.com/wa tch?v=bC61pVyRf2k

The mates of course,and paul westerberg with the snl band doing “cant hardly waith”..what a great nigth

david bowie’s appearence with the marionette thing singing the great ”man who sold the world” with klaus nomi and other great freaks of the nyc scene (strange party) i was there backstage and met david yet again.he was very charming as usual and always the gent.

also there for both the dress rehersal and frayed performance of the stone’s 1978 some girls summer tour. mick’s red plastic pants were bulging something xxx and the powers that be were not happy with what the camera was picking up and no one could say much to mick.

Blues Brothers, “Soul Man”.

Should be in the National Archives.