Best/Worst SNL Musical Guest Performance?

Best - Beefheart, Replacements, Elvis Costello ('78, natch), LL Cool J doing "Go Cut Creator Go" Worst - too many to mention but Sting is way too omnipresent and Prince's performances have been disappointing, along with most of his other tv appearances.

Best Performance: Sting doing Hendrix's Purple Haze in January 1991...completely unexpected... the dueling guitar solos by Dominic Miller and David Sancious... the intense drumming of the maestro Vinnie Colaiuta... the smirking bandleader seemingly knowing that he has finally assembled a monster of a lineup, able of kicking his past into oblivion

Worst Performance: Smashing Pumpkins ... when I realized that Billy Corgan wasn't capable of dublicating the melodies that he had committed to record.

I saw Fear and thought that Fear wasn't that bad. Belushi loved them, that was obvious. I also liked the appearances of Zappa with Belushi doing his character Samurai BeBop Swordsman on the song Son of Saint Alphonzo (Colaiuta kicked tail with that band also).

I've heard quite a bit about Brian Wilson's 1976 performance of "Good Vibrations" -- apparently it's trainwreck material.

I've seen the Fear clips -- more vague attempts at slamming than anything else.

Worst: Red Hot Chili Peppers. Keidis can't sing in tune, the sound sucked, and the song was terrible to begin with.

Best (that I've seen): Believe it or not, Frank Zappa. I usually can't stand the sonufabitch, but I recently saw a clip of him doing "I'm the Slime" and thought it was pretty grate, although it went on too long. However, I haven't seen any of the really noteworthy SNL performances: Sun Ra, the 78 Elvis Costello, Beefheart, etc.

I would have to say.....First let me say, I have watched the show from day one; I know the show has sucked big time for at least the last seven years. It is like a bad drug habit; my excuse for still watching. Shitty Britty Spears in my expert opin is by far the WORST performance ever.Hell, I love her tits but, she has not one ounce of talent;not any related to music.I know an amputee who dances far better than Brittney Spears. The best for last portion of my response: If you look just a couple of responses above you will see Brian again,It looks as though he has yet to buy a dictionary.I my self have never heard the word "dublicating". I was wondering if Brian could share with us the meaning of "dublicating"? Brian better get ready for summer school!

James, I think he's waiting to figure out what an "opin" is, you mark.

The Meters - "I Want To See My Name Up In Lights"
with Zigaboo Modeliste singing!

...and i totally DISAGREE - the show has been getting much better recently thanks to:
Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph (Minnie Riperton's daughter), Horatio Sanz, Chris Kattan, Darrell Hammond, etc
though i'm amazed it's gotten so good again!

"...i love my stinky bearded clam..."

There's lots of worsts, but as for bests:

I second Zappa's "Slime"... especially with Don Pardo as guest vocalist on the song.

Also The Sugarcubes' "Motorcrash"... and yes, Einar's tight black shirt and robotic shuffling during that performance was the very thing that inspired "Sprockets".

hey kids, it's comin' on in 15 minutes!

(rockin' that uptotheminute reportage...)

Best: Seen a lot of good ones, Nirvana, Fishbone, Sting singing a jazz standard (which one I don't remember) with the SNL band, Portishead come to mind.

Worst: Definitely the Beastie Boys, doing Sure Shot and something else from Ill Communication. I don't know what the hell got into Ad-Rock, but he sounded more like Gilbert Gottfried than anything else, and Mike D sounded like ass too.

I really haven't seen many. But I thought Radiohead were brilliant on it. I also have some downloads of Portishead and Björk from SNL that sounded really good.

Clarke B., thank you so much! "you mark" is such a high compliment from someone I don't even know.To call me, a man of importance;a man of distinction.WOW! Of course if I have misinterpeted your intent behind "you mark" then I will retaliate by telling the world that Clarke B.is a "stain" of un-known origin.

The subject is "best SNL musical performance," and not one mention of Color Me Badd? Where is the love, people? WHERE IS THE LOVE?

John, do you wish to get sexed up, or do you just adore mi amor?

You know, I don't think SNL's Golden Days were all that golden. They coasted on boomer smugness, and now seem about as rebellious as a stockbroker on a cocaine binge, if only mildly less pricky.

I ordinarily have no use for them, but I highly rate Pearl Jam's post-Kurt performance, corny Neil Young quote and all. And Technotronic opened their first song with these dancers doing an Axl Rose serpetine thing and a frontwards moonwalk at the same time. It was...weird. The audience, who I bet were expecting disco shit, loudly & collectively gasped.

I can't really think of a really bad performance on SNL, but I most of the ones I've seen, including those by great acts, just strike me as being hopelessly pedestrian. Never saw the Fear show. Supposedly Ian Mackaye pogoed onstage.

has anyone seen the one with The Time? total 80s funk freakout with vocalist morris day eating dinner interwoven into the peformance.

Naturally, I liked FZ's performances on SNL. (What else would I say?) Not just the aforementioned Belushi-as-Samurai and "I Am the Slime," but also the killer versions of "Peaches en Regalia" and "The Purple Lagoon."

We're all overlooking one obvious great moment -- Bowie's 1979 appearance, with Klaus Nomi as one of his backup singers (thanks, Arthur Tabren, for pointing this fact out to me). I play the clip of Bowie's performances of "The Man Who Sold the World" and "Boys Keep Swinging" to young (!) unbelievers.

Yeah, the one with Morris Day rulez. On a similar note, I have a bizarre attraction to the Sheila E. band performance.

I second the radiohead mention. Thom was going into convulsions during The National Anthem. tt was pretty neat. Vanilla Ice was good too, if only for Dennis Miller ripping him after.

As mentioned elsewhere, I really liked the Beefheart performance. I also really liked Ornette Coleman and Prime Time's performance, circa 1979. They only got to do one song, late in the show, some disco-jazz number, but I really enjoyed it (perhaps cuz Charlie Hayden wasn't in the band). A drummer and guitarist (and one bassist) in opposite corners, Ornette dead center of a stage made to look like a penthouse. Another performance I taped and watched over and over.

Prince's performance of "Party Up" (on the infamous episode where Charles Rocket says "fuck"), is pretty good too, if only for the end where Prince and the Revolution throw down their instruments and storm off the stage. Oh yeah, and you realise Prince is only wearing women's underwear under his purple trenchcoat.

Best: Talking Heads, Devo (it was "Satisfaction" they played, along with "Mongoloid"), Elvis Costello, Fear, Bowie/Nomi, Faith No More.

Worst: Dexy's Midnight Runners (by far, Rowland's voice broke mid song and totally threw him off), Rolling Stones

"SNL is getting better" = "the check is in the mail"

Oh Ned. Cruel Ned. How could you even think of asking me to decide.

Beefheart, Zappa, Marianne Faithful, Bob Dylan's 25 minute version of Serve Somebody, Replacements, FEAR, Sugarcubes, Joe Jackson (Big World performance) ... but the best one I remember was Neil Young's "Keep on Rockin in the free World" - I hate that song, but Neil totally rocked out - amazing energy.

I think worst performances are a little harder to come up, primarily because these days they'll book any schmoe who can sell 500,000 records in a month or two. I mean, I know I've seen tons of suck-ass stuff on the show over the last 10, 15 years, but I have the feeling I just don't remember the dreck, cause it's so . . . unmemorable. Ah, one exception: Bobby Brown's last gasp performance sometime during the '90s. THIS was the man behind "My Perogative"?

As for best, I gotta form a one-man amen corner and go with Beef and Bowie, both of which did in my tiny little suburban-South teenage mind and let me know that there was Something Else Out There. Also, I don't remember if it was any good or not, but I do remember seeing Kate Bush make her American TV debut, singing and writhing around on top of a piano. Like my other faves, it was definitely a case of "Whut the HELL was that?" Say what you like about the show as a comedy showcase, then vs. now, but at one point they booked really interesting music and now they book whatever's hot.

Also, in a similar vein, I still remember seeing the Clash do "Straight to Hell" on Fridays, a short-lived SNL rival/rip-off on another network that also booked some good live acts. Scary good, and it's not even that great a song.

Oh Ned. Cruel Ned. How could you even think of asking me to decide.

Because I am evil and mean and have no friends. I always liked the chief puppet in that band, what was with that look of his? Very gormless, as they say.

John, do you wish to get sexed up, or do you just adore mi amor?

Why does Ned know so much about COlor Me Badd anyhow? What the fuck?

This was during the time when I regularly watched MTV -- it's knowledge I can't avoid.

I wanna hack you up (rip rip cut up chop) / Let me tear off all your liiiimbs...