The Music of "Saturday Night Live" Quiz

Answer: Billy Preston

Billy Preston was the first musical guest to play on "Saturday Night Live". He performed his number one song "Nothing From Nothing" on October 11, 1975. At that time, it was rare for musical guests to sing live on TV shows. For his second set, Billy played "Fancy Lady".

In the 2024 movie, "Saturday Night", John Batiste portrayed Billy Preston.

Answer: Espresso

The bridesmaids tell Matthew about Kelsey's infidelity with a man named Domingo while they were on their bachelorette trip to Charleston. Ariana Grande, Sarah Sherman, Ego Nwodim, and Heidi Gardner played and sang as the bridesmaids to Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso".

Ariana Grande was host and Steve Nicks was musical guest on the October 12, 2024 episode of "Saturday Night Live".

Answer: Turkey

Paul Simon said it was his idea to wear the turkey costume as guest host of the Thanksgiving episode of "Saturday Night Live". During the show, Paul is seen complaining to Lorne about wearing the costume and looking like a fool while Lorne explains to him that everything is going to be all right.

FYI, if you haven't seen this scene, you should look it up on Youtube.

Answer: Yes

Sinead O'Connor was the musical guest on October 3, 1992. During dress rehearsal for her second song "War", Sinead held up a picture of an African American refugee baby toward the end of the song. No one watching the rehearsal understood what it meant, but didn't say anything.

When it came time to film the song, Sinead asked for one camera only to film her. Toward the end of the song, Sinead held up a picture of the Pope and proceeded to rip the picture in half to a stunned audience, cast, and crew.

Answer: Respectable

For the Rolling Stones first time on "Saturday Night Live" the band performed "Beast of Burden", "Respectable," and "Shattered" from their 1978 US tour. By the time of the actual performances, Mick Jagger's voice was going bad and the band began kissing each other on stage.

Answer: Paul Simon

Paul Simon performed "The Boxer" on the season twenty-seven premiere of "Saturday Night Live" which occurred almost three weeks after September 11, 2001. While Paul performed the song on one stage, NYC firefighters were gathering on the stage next to him for the end of the episode.

Answer: Prince

Prince and his band sang "Party Up" and ended his first musical set with the words "We don't want to fight no more". He then threw his mike down and walked off stage with his band following behind him.

Answer: Funky Four Plus One

Debby Harry introduced Funky Four Plus One on "Saturday Night Live" after requesting they perform on the show. At the time the group performed on "Saturday Night Live", Sherri "Sha-Rock" Adams was pregnant with her first child.

Answer: Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy didn't want to portray James Brown, but writers Barry Blaustein and David Sheffield talked him into portraying the singer. Eddie Murphy portrayed James Brown in a musical sketch called "Celebrity Hot Tub Party".

Answer: Elvis Costello

Elvis and the Attractions were barely halfway through their song when Elvis stopped the song and started singing "Radio, Radio". Elvis said that they performed the song during rehearsal, but it didn't seem right to him so he decided to switch it for "Radio, Radio".

Elvis admitted that he had never seen "Saturday Night Live" before he was on the show. At the twenty-fifth anniversary special, Elvis played with the Beastie Boys by interrupting their song to sing another song.

Answer: Kanye West

Instead of the brick background that multiple performers had played in front of, Kanye West performed in front of an all-white background on October 1, 2005. All of Kanye's performances on "Saturday Night Live" had been fraught with some kind of problems from him storming out of the studio after pieces of his performance background were removed to him going off script at the end of one of the shows.

Answer: Blues Brothers

"Blues Brothers" became a three minutes sketch to take up time on the April 28,1978 episode of "Saturday Night Live" and then in 1980 became a movie starring Dan Ackroyd as Elwood Blues and John Belushi as Jake "Joliet" Blues.

When Dan and John first brought the idea of the "Blues Brothers" to Lorne Michaels he initially turned it down. When an episode of "Saturday Night Live" was three minutes short, Lorne told Dan and John to fill the three minutes with the Blues Brothers. The audience loved it.

The Blues Brothers appeared in six episodes of "Saturday Night Live" from their initial appearance as the Blues Brothers in April 1978 to the 40th anniversary special in 2015.

Answer: He had his back to the audience

Miles Davis played trumpet as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live". As he started to play trumpet, Miles turned away from the audience and played the entire set. Lorne Michaels wasn't thrilled about Miles turning his back from the audience. Miles Davis's reasoning for playing with his back to the audience is the trumpet sounds different on each part of the stage.

Answer: Adele

Adele said when she left New York City after "Saturday Night Live" her song "Chasing Pavements" was number forty-five on the billboard chart. When she arrived in London, "Chasing Pavements" had quickly moved up the charts. Adele said she never believed in overnight success until her "Saturday Night Live" debut.

Bill Hader said that several people in Studio 8H stopped to listen to Adele during her rehearsal because they had never heard her sing before.

Answer: Morgan Wallen

Morgan Wallen had gone against Covid-19 regulations for "Saturday Night Live" that he not be in a large group of people and always wear a mask. Morgan was filmed the week before at a University of Alabama party drinking and kissing several women. He was replaced with Jack White from White Stripes.

On the December 5, 2020 "Saturday Night Live", Morgan Wallen was the musical guest with Jason Bateman as host. Morgan played himself in a skit while Jason Bateman played Morgan from a month in the future and Bowen Yang played him two months into the future. Morgan ended the skit by thanking "Saturday Night Live" for giving him a second chance.