It doesn't get any bigger than Saturday Night Live. For over 50 years and counting, the weekly sketch comedy series – broadcast from NBC and produced out of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City – has also featured the biggest names in music as guest performers. Naturally, some acts wind up better than others. But which among them deserves recognition as the greatest ever?
Here's some trivia for you: Saturday Night Live's tradition of musical guests started as soon as the show itself did. In its premiere episode on October 11, 1975, funk singer Billy Preston and folk musician Janis Ian were the first to perform, paving the way for future major artists over the ensuing decades. From avant-garde jazz to hardcore punk to Korean pop, SNL has been an unofficial barometer for what's "in" in the zeitgeist; to look back is to see American culture transform in real time.
In commemoration of SNL's legacy, here are the 32 greatest Saturday Night Live performances.
32. Adele (November 21, 2015)
To promote her diamond-certified album 25, released in 2015, Adele soothed the 30 Rockefeller audience with her soul ballad "When We Were Young" and her monster hit single "Hello." The downtempo mood and minimalist lighting served as a showcase of Adele's powerhouse vocals, allowing her to shine against the dark with nothing but just the voice the heavens gave her. An exhibition of her pure talent, Adele's 2015 performance on SNL is a testament to raw talent needing nothing flashy to impress.
31. Frank Ocean (feat. John Mayer) (September 15, 2012)
In summer 2012, underground R&B sensation Frank Ocean dropped his debut album Channel Orange to rave reviews. As the summer drew to a close, Ocean teamed up with guitar maestro John Mayer to perform his songs "Thinking Bout You" and "Pyramids." In an elaborate set in which Ocean, Mayer, and the band are surrounded by retro arcade machines (matching Ocean's predominant motif of millennial nostalgia), Ocean enchants the live audience whilst Mayer shreds his solo.
30. Fleet Foxes (January 17, 2009)
Hailing from Seattle, Fleet Foxes made waves in the indie folk scene, first with two EPs before releasing their acclaimed debut self-titled album in 2008. Their unlikely profile afforded them an appearance on Saturday Night Live on January 17, 2009, performing "Blue Ridge Mountains" and "Mykonos." SNL's stage has historically welcomed musical acts who aren't finely calibrated for Top 40 radio, but the arboreal vibes of Fleet Foxes is really something else under the bright lights of SNL's metropolitan studio.
29. Rage Against the Machine (April 13, 1996)
Whoever at Saturday Night Light booked socialist-leaning rock band Rage Against the Machine and guest host Steve Forbes (the affluent Republican figure and namesake to Forbes magazine) deserves either a raise or jail time. Slated to perform two songs, the group wound up playing just one after they tried to protest their joint appearance with a political enemy through hanging inverted U.S. flags from their amps. (They were forced to take them down before they went live.) It doesn't stop their performance of "Bulls on Parade" from going so hard, however.
28. Arctic Monkeys (March 11, 2006)
Don't you dare yawn in front of Alex Turner. A bit before Arctic Monkeys achieved a higher profile in the U.S., these English rockers from Sheffield paid a visit to Saturday Night Live and performed two songs from their 2006 debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. While the band was locked in for their performance of the propulsive "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor," someone who was probably up past their bedtime yawned during "A Certain Romance," which prompted frontman Alex Turner to verbally call them out. A year later, the group released the rollicking Favourite Worst Nightmare, which left no one fatigued.
27. Florence + the Machine (November 19, 2011)
Florence Welch probably didn't need that microphone. In 2011, the London-based indie/baroque pop outfit Florence + the Machine released Ceremonials, an epic album that catapulted them to the mainstream limelight. In November that year, the group cemented their moment with a live performance on SNL. Backed by gospel vocalists dressed in ornate black and gold, Florence sings her heart out through the songs "Shake It Out" (easily their biggest radio hit) and "No Light, No Light."
26. Funky 4 + 1 (February 14, 1981)
In 1981, Bronx natives Funky 4 + 1 made history by being the first-ever hip-hop group to perform rap music on American network television. The occasion happened on February 14, 1981. Introduced by guest Debby Harris (of the group Blondie), Funky 4 + 1 performed "That's the Joint." Fittingly, the song has the group rhetorically ask "Are you ready for this?" Whether or not America was ready for it, hip-hop was part of the culture, and this would be far from the last time it would be heard live on Saturday nights.
25. Billie Eilish (September 28, 2019)
2019 was a banner year for Billie Eilish, who at age 18 took the world by storm with her juggernaut single "bad guy" off her sophomore album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. Living up to her reputation as a teen pop star who defies industry norms, Eilish, dressed in her signature baggy clothing, made full use of a cramped set that sees her walk on its walls and jump off the ceiling. It's an old filmmaking trick in which a camera is fixed on a rotating stage (a technique also used in the movie Inception) but that doesn't mean it isn't mesmerizing to watch. It helps that "bad guy" is a banger to boot.
24. Madonna (January 16, 1993)
Only Madonna could turn 30 Rock into a thumping '90s-era nightclub. In January 1993, the mega-star sang "Fever" and "Bad Girl," two singles off her seminal album Erotica. While the album is characterized by overt sexual themes and lyrics, Madonna plays it somewhat safe on live television, dressed in a tasteful black outfit with an exposed midriff that was in vogue (ha ha, get it?) at the time. But really, when you're Madonna, you don't need flashy gimmicks like revealing costumes or outlandish stage design. All that's needed is some good music to get us dancing in our living rooms.
23. BTS (April 13, 2019)
Korean pop music made serious waves across the Pacific Ocean in the late 2010s, and no group was more emblematic of its cross-cultural appeal than BTS. In 2019, the group cemented themselves and K-pop into the mainstream consciousness with a landmark appearance on Saturday Night Live. Introduced by Oscar winner Emma Stone, BTS performed their upbeat single "Boys with Luv" and their more aggressive hit "Mic Drop." The former song sees the group don fine suits and groove to smooth bubblegum beats, but the latter allows the boys to show off what they're made of. Dressed in baggy streetwear, BTS dominate the stage with intricate choreography that overshadows anything ever put out by their '90s American predecessors.
22. Jack White (October 10, 2020)
In one of the first new Saturday Night Live episodes since worldwide lockdown, musician Jack White stepped in as a last-minute replacement for country singer Morgan Wallen after they violated COVID-19 protocol. With only two days' notice, Jack White stunned masked-up audiences with a fine performance of the songs "Lazaretto," "Ball and Biscuit," and a cover of Beyoncé's "Don't Hurt Yourself." Unburdened by needing to promote new material, White simply put on a good show that functioned as his own tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen as he performed with a guitar that Eddie personally made for White.
21. Pearl Jam (April 11, 1992)
As grunge music grew in mainstream popularity, Saturday Night Live played a small role in solidifying the genre for a network TV audience. In 1992, Pearl Jam toured relentlessly in support of their seminal album Ten, which included a stop performing at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The band lit up SNL with a rendition of their songs "Alive" and "Porch." Pearl Jam fans to this day love the performance, most of all Dave Abbruzzese's drumming. Fun fact: Abbruzzese was a replacement for previous drummer Matt Chamberlain, who left the band to play… for the in-house band of Saturday Night Live.
20. Sabrina Carpenter (May 19, 2024)
Summer 2024 had legit heated competition for song of the summer. In May, former Disney star turned pop idol Sabrina Carpenter threw down the gauntlet with her sixth album Short n' Sweet, appropriately titled given its compact collection of dreamy pop tunes with a nostalgic touch. Just as the summer started, Carpenter came to SNL with a performance of "Espresso" and "Feather/Nonsense." With her unique Marilyn Monroe-like aesthetics and an elaborate set that turned 30 Rock into a classy cocktail bar that Don Draper might frequent, Sabrina Carpenter made an excellent case for herself that summer 2024 was hers to own.
19. Radiohead (October 14, 2000)
In the same year that Radiohead unleashed their defining album Kid A, the band came to SNL fully prepared to weird America out. Performing "The National Anthem" and "Idioteque," Radiohead adorned the insides of 30 Rock with its signature brand of psychedelic rock and Thom Yorke dancing like he's possessed by an alien parasite. While the band had already cultivated a solid reputation with acclaimed albums like The Bends and OK Computer, their memorable performance on Saturday Night Live earned them even more lasting attention.
18. Sun Ra (May 20, 1978)
Early into Saturday Night Live's now-legendary run, the show's producers were less concerned about chasing trends and more about hearing what they wanted to hear. Thus was the case of its season three finale in 1978, which featured avant-garde jazz legend Sun Ra as the musical guest. Dressed like Egyptian pharaohs from outer space and rambling about the harmony of planets in a brief pre-performance interview, Sun Ra mystifies the studio audience with a lengthy 14-minute set. It's the kind of performance that would never happen today in modern Saturday Night Live, and in retrospect, a miracle it ever did.
17. Taylor Swift (November 13, 2021)
Taylor Swift is no stranger to Saturday Night Live. In 2021, to mark the "Taylor's Version" release of her album Red, the juggernaut pop star carpet-bombed SNL's stage with red-orange autumn leaves (all having fallen into place) to sing her epic 10-minute version of "All Too Well." With Swift's own directed music video/short film projected behind her, Taylor strums her guitar and sings longingly of a past love that could have and should have been her happily ever after. Sure, it has the vibe of crying tears into a pumpkin spice latte, but you can't deny Swift is radiant in what appears to be her final form.
16. Mariah Carey (November 15, 1997)
Mariah Carey was fresh out of high school when she made her first Saturday Night Live appearance in 1990. As a budding pop star, she was already a powerhouse talent even back then. But fast forward to 1997, amid the release of her acclaimed album Butterfly, Carey had matured into a true genre-bending phenom. Her growth is evident in her 1997 return to SNL, performing "Butterfly" and "My All" – two emotionally stirring R&B ballads that undoubtedly moved those lucky enough to hear it in person.
15. Childish Gambino (May 5, 2018)
Donald Glover, aka "Childish Gambino," was promoting Solo: A Star Wars Story when he shook the world with an even greater power than the Force. On Cinco de Mayo 2018, Gambino debuted his brand-new single "This Is America," a trap-inspired anthem that artfully interrogated America's entrenched systemic racism. The gamble of performing a brand-new song never yet heard worked, and by Monday morning, his song and its metaphor-heavy music video was the talk around the office water cooler. Gambino's SNL performance was just as demanding of everyone's attention, with blinding stage lights of red and blue (as in, police lights) that echoed the song's manic aggression.
14. Dr. Dre (feat. Eminem and Snoop Dogg) (October 23, 1999)
That it's Norm Macdonald who does the introduction isn't even the best part. In 1999, to promote his new album 2001 (not that confusing), the West Coast titan of hip-hop took the stage of SNL with two other rap giants in tow. First it was Snoop Dogg who joined Dre in a performance of "Still DRE" (still rips). Then it was Eminem on "Forgot About Dre," which impressively sees Eminem breathlessly rap his blistering verses live on the mic. While both Snoop and Eminem have their own history at SNL as solo acts, their joint performances with Dr. Dre remains a singular highlight.
13. Kendrick Lamar (November 15, 2014)
Of all of Kendrick Lamar's performances on Saturday Night Live, his 2014 appearance is still among his greatest of all time. Ahead of the 2015 release of his album To Pimp a Butterfly, Lamar is mostly solo (save for his backup singers) in a rendition of "i" while Lamar is joined by Chatnal and Jay Rock for a thunderous performance of Jay Rock's own "Pay for It" (on which Lamar features). Both songs are a showcase of Lamar's untouchable talent and vision as a rap artist; it foreshadows the greatness imminent with his Pulitzer Prize-winning Damn in 2017, and the culturally seismic Drake diss track "Not Like Us" some 10 years later.
12. Queen (September 25, 1982)
If you ask any Queen fan, they'll tell you the band's 1982 guest appearance on Saturday Night Live isn't exactly canonical. But it has a place in the band’s lore for at least one important reason: It is the last time the band ever played on American soil. On September 25, 1982, still a few years shy from their history-making Live Aid gig, the band rocked out inside 30 Rockefeller for an in-between stop in the U.S. and European legs of their Hot Space Tour. The group played two of their biggest hits, "Under Pressure" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." Even an average performance by Queen is an astonishing day for most other bands, and considering Freddy Mercury et al. must have been exhausted from a summer of relentless touring, they're more than excused for taking it easy.
11. Simon and Garfunkel (October 18, 1975)
Five years after Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon broke up as a duo, the two experimented with working together again on a handful of occasions – including a visit to Saturday Night Live, for the show's second episode. On October 18, 1975, the two performed "My Little Town" (a number recorded for Simon's solo album) as well as "The Boxer" and "Scarborough Fair." Sadly, this reunion was not exactly the start of a brand-new chapter, but rather an elongated postscript on their careers as collaborators. Simon retired from touring full-time in 2018, putting to bed any possibility of a legitimate reunion with his old partner. At least they still have this cozy performance, as well as Simon's own return to SNL (as a solo act) in October 2018.
10. Justin Timberlake (March 9, 2013)
It is almost, almost, the single greatest SNL performance in its storied history. With his boy band days behind him, ex-*NSYNC frontman Justin Timberlake was fully evolved as a blue-eyed soul singer and songwriter as seen in his epic double album The 20/20 Experience. The first of the two albums bowed with the singles "Suit & Tie" (a dressy number with Jay-Z as a featured artist) and "Mirrors," an eight-minute long progressive anthem inspired by his marriage to wife Jessica Biel; Timberlake took both with him to 30 Rockefeller in a blockbuster display of showmanship The "Suit & Tie" performance is quite nice, and Jay-Z is a pleasant surprise. But "Mirrors" is close to perfect. There's just something about the song performed live that makes it feel alive in its romantic mystique. If only SNL's audio engineers calibrated Justin's microphone correctly…
9. Faith No More (December 1, 1990)
Is there any rock group more "Epic" than Faith No More? In 1990, the San Francisco rockers stomped into New York City for a dynamite performance on Saturday Night Live. The band played two songs off their smash 1989 album The Real Thing: "Epic" and "From Out of Nowhere." As far as the mainstream audience tuned into SNL was concerned, Faith No More indeed came from out of nowhere. Lead singer Mike Patton is just as otherworldly, dressed in bizarre red outfits and moving all around the stage like he's learning to walk for the first time. Off-putting? Maybe. Unforgettable? Definitely.
8. The Weeknd (March 7, 2020)
It was all but primed to be the song of the summer until there was summer no more. In the precarious days of March 2020, The Weeknd (introduced by a chillaxed Daniel Craig) came dressed to kill with his synth-heavy pop hit "Blinding Lights." He also performed "Scared to Live" – a darkly foreboding title going into the COVID-19 pandemic. Within weeks the world would be a different place, and live performances felt like a thing of the past. Eventually the world returned to gathering indoors. but it would be a long time before it did, and songs like "Blinding Lights" only reminded us of the fun we should have been having all along.
7. David Bowie (December 15, 1979)
Smack dab in his Berlin era, David Bowie toyed with genre and gender roles in an iconic performance that showed middle America a new vision of masculinity. Performing alongside Joey Arias and Klaus Nomi, Bowie sang "TVC15" in a dress and heels, "The Man Who Sold the World" in a funky tuxedo constructed like futuristic samurai armor, and become a freaky headless marionette to perform "Boys Keep Swinging." The performance was foundational to many young people discovering a piece of themselves they didn't have the words to; in a quote sourced by Rolling Stone in 2017, Arias said: "People still come up to me on tour and say, 'You changed my life.'"
6. Kanye West (May 18, 2013)
The hype for Kanye West's 2013 album Yeezus hit a fever pitch in May 2013, when the once-revered rapper took the stage of Saturday Night Live to perform two songs from the new release: "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves." In concert with Ye's distorted primal screams and provocative lyrics aimed towards America's racial injustices, the background graphics projected behind West are just as eye-catching. With West drowning in darkness, images of frightening police dogs, black Klan hoods, and distressed labels that read "NOT FOR SALE" highlight the rapper in silhouette, suggesting his fury towards a world that only ever sees in black and white.
5. A Tribe Called Quest (November 12, 2016)
In the aftermath of the 2016 election that left everyone shook, A Tribe Called Quest took the stage of SNL to mark the release of their album We Got It From Here, Thank You 4 Your Service. That album title held extra meaning in the absence of member Phife Dawg, who died in March of that year. On stage, the group paid tribute with a mural of Phife towering behind the surviving members. Just before their performance of their song "We The People…," guest star Dave Chapelle introduced the group with a passionate "At long last" to cue them up.
4. Beastie Boys and Elvis Costello (September 25, 1999)
To understand what makes the Beastie Boys' joint performance with Elvis Costello so much fun, we need to rewind the clock to December 17, 1977. On that night, Costello was SNL's musical guest. Midway through his performance of "Less Than Zero," he cued his band to switch to "Radio, Radio" – a critique of overt commercialism of modern music. This made SNL producer Lorne Michaels royally mad, leading to Costello's ban from the show for the next 15 years. By 1999, the ban was lifted. When SNL celebrated its 25th anniversary, the Beastie Boys were in the middle of their monster hit "Sabotage" when who else but Elvis Costello "interrupted" them, kicking off yet another performance of "Radio, Radio." This time, it was actually planned.
3. Sinead O'Connor (October 3, 1992)
The subsequent controversy of Sinead O'Connor's legendary performance on Saturday Night Live in October 1992 often overshadows the haunting beauty of her acapella rendition of Bob Marley's "War." Indeed, O'Connor started something of a battle when she ended her performance holding up a photograph of Pope John Paul II and tearing it on camera – an act she did in protest to the Catholic Church's history of abuse, her activism rooted in her traumas from childhood. (During rehearsals, O'Connor held up a photo of a refugee child.) While the performance all but led to the end of O'Connor's career, she would be vindicated when John Paul II publicly acknowledged rampant child abuse by the church, as well as landmark reporting on it by The Boston Globe in 2002. The bravery of O'Connor to sacrifice her own safety and reputation to bring light to an urgent matter simply cannot be overstated.
2. Nirvana (January 11, 1992)
Long live Seattle grunge. In 1992, as the grunge scene saw a meteoric rise to define early '90s rock, Nirvana enshrined their place in music history when they played their enduring masterpiece "Smells Like Teen Spirit," as well as "Territorial Pissings," both off their seminal 1991 album Nevermind. In a lot of ways, Nirvana's January 1992 appearance on SNL marked the official end of the 1980s. It simply doesn't get bigger than SNL, and to hear Nirvana's meaty riffs and see them in scraggly torn denim outfits in front of a mass audience – it all opened the floodgates for the rest to come.
1. FEAR (October 31, 1981)
Talk about trick or treat. On Halloween night in 1981, at the behest of former SNL star and fan Jim Belushi, hardcore California punk band FEAR invaded the inside of 30 Rockefeller Plaza and put on a sweaty basement show under the glamorous lights and cameras of NBC. With a gaggle of high-energy slam dancers who moshed around them and provocations from the band themselves – who shouted things like "It's great to be in New Jersey" to jaded yuppie New Yorkers – FEAR earned their immortality in the unlikeliest of places. Music or mayhem, it doesn't matter. With FEAR, they're one and the same.
