Great Saturday Night Live Music Performances

[Oscar Acosta]

I won't say the best, because so many are different genres, different eras, I mean Kesha killed it on SNL. But SNL has always been a seriously underrated platform for music, it's our Ed Sullivan Beatles show.

The one that will always stick out in my head is October 23, 1999. Musical guest Dr. Dre promoting his upcoming album the Chronic 2001. We has all known about Eminem a little bit at the time, but only if you were a rap fan and everyone wrote him off as a joke like Vanilla Ice. His "Real Slim Shady" video was out and nobody took it seriously.

Then....

"Forgot About Dre" on SNL. From white kid joke to legit holy **** in 3 minutes flat, and the springboard to him becoming one of the greatest rappers of all time and the biggest name of the 2000s.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xk...saturday-night-live-nbc-10-23-1999-pt-1_music

Click to read more...

 

[Oscar Acosta]

Then less than 4 years later he was a sidekick hype man for Dr. Dre to releasing his first single after his acclaimed Marshall Mathers LP live on Saturday Night Live as a major star.

People knew to tune in at 9:30 local time to watch SNL to see the new Eminem single. Ads on TV and everything. Doesn't seem that great now but it was a big deal to tune in and hear his new song:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2cz95n_eminem-without-me-live-snl-2002-720p-hd-music-video_music

And it was awesome at the time. Remember having a tape deck up to the VCR as it recorded, and then copying it to CD-RM and onto my speakers haha.

 

[Oscar Acosta]

 

[HanSolo]

Not Lana Del Ray. That's for sure.

 

[TNT87]

Not Lana Del Ray. That's for sure.

Nor Ashlee Simpson.

 

[Habsrule]

Neil Young --- Keep on Rockin' in the Free World

 

[Buckets and Gloves]

Had Pearl Jam posted but forgot about this gem... Elvis Costello had the best by far.... so sick.

 

[plank]

George Harrison and Paul Simon together from 1976.


Homeward Bound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UODI6JmUnMA

Here Comes the Sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiOr5WoAJgg

 

[NyQuil]

 

[HanSolo]

Nor Ashlee Simpson.

Oh yes. How can I forget.

Wish I could contribute here but I only ever watched SNL sporadically and when I would I would fast forward past the music more than half of the time.

 

[cupcrazyman]

In the early years,SNL seemed to focus more on their musical guests & less than the host & skits.
I have Season 1 & 3 DVD Boxsets.

 

[rbochan]

 

[kook10]

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

Tragically Hip in 1995.

Gord had a microphone, but I have to imagine it wasn't plugged into anything. He could've nailed the lyrics to the back wall without it.

Click here with your mousing device

 

[aleshemsky83]

I hated most of these, and didn't like any of them except for tragically hip.

That was great.

But I will say the one I actually enjoyed was the last Kanye West performance, I really liked it even though I dont like the song very much

 

[aleshemsky83]

delete

 

[Dr Pepper]

Came in here expecting to see Ashlee Simpson's name come up, and was not disappointed.

Tragically Hip in 1995.

Gord had a microphone, but I have to imagine it wasn't plugged into anything. He could've nailed the lyrics to the back wall without it.

Click here with your mousing device

Great, great performance.

Anyone else think Jim Parsons could pass for a young Gord Downie?

 

[missingmika]

I hated most of these, and didn't like any of them except for tragically hip.

That was great.

But I will say the one I actually enjoyed was the last Kanye West performance, I really liked it even though I dont like the song very much

Kanye has a ton of SNL classics. Both his Yeezus songs were amazing.

I'd also point out:
Ultra Light Beam - although Chance the Rapper steals this and has an all time great performance
Everthing I'm Not - Kanye freestyles after screwing up his rap and part of the freestyle is him saying he screwed up the rap
Runaway - all time classic

 

[cupcrazyman]

Tragically Hip in 1995.

Gord had a microphone, but I have to imagine it wasn't plugged into anything. He could've nailed the lyrics to the back wall without it.

Click here with your mousing device

I was looking for this snl clip earlier this week !

 

[Dr Pepper]

Going to show these guys as they're my fav band:



Not their best performance, but they were banned from SNL after this because they attempted to throw upside-down American flags over the amps. SNL crew had to run in and remove them just seconds before it went to air.

Here is a great write-up of the performance:

http://www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/snl.htm

Brilliant move by Lorne Michaels, or whoever it is who picks the musical guest, to pick Rage Against the Machine on the same night a Republican ex-presidential candidate (Steve Forbes) is hosting.

I'm not sure if there are many other examples (Sinead O'Connor, maybe) where the musical guest only played one song instead of two.

 

[frisco]

Queen 1982: Under Pressure and Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

My Best-Carey