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Best Musical Performances at SNL’s 50th Anniversary Spectacular

February 19, 2025

Best Musical Performances at SNL’s 50th Anniversary Spectacular

This month there’s been so many Saturday Night Live specials celebrating its 50th year on TV it may be hard to keep up with them.

But for music fans there are only two that matter. Friday, Valentine’s Day there was a three-hour spectacular that focused on music. Artists like David Byrne, Jack White, Robyn, Arcade Fire, Bad Bunny, Jelly Roll, and Bill Murray serenaded the star-studded audience.

There were so many solid acts it was hard to narrow them down to the five best, but someone had to do it.

Sunday night (2/17), not Saturday for some reason, the party moved from Radio City to 30 Rock and that three-hour epic focused on skits.

read more at: Setlist.fm

In Case You Missed It

A Banger Was Released Every Day In November

A Banger Was Released Every Day In November

November gets plenty of credit for turkey, football and the annual rush to buy a slightly larger television. The record stores deserve a little attention, too. From Nirvana unplugging to Wu-Tang kicking the door in, this month has delivered an impressive pile of albums and plenty of ways to drown out Thanksgiving arguments. Here’s one for every day.

Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York album coverNovember 1: Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York (1994, DGC Records). MTV once put musicians on television and let them play entire songs. Imagine. Nirvana used the opportunity to sidestep the obvious hits and lean on David Bowie, Lead Belly and the Meat Puppets. Kurt Cobain’s final howl in “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” makes the usual unplugged-session chatter about intimacy seem rather inadequate. Also: Megadeth, Youthanasia (1994); The Cure, Songs of a Lost World (2024).

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