'SNL' music documentary spills thrills and tea with Prince, Olivia Rodrigo, Miley and more

USA Today

27-01-2025

'SNL' music documentary spills thrills and tea with Prince, Olivia Rodrigo, Miley and more
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'Saturday Night Live' celebrates 50 years of comedy
Live from New York, it's the 50th anniversary of "Saturday Night Live."
Six and a half minutes.
That's all it will take to entice you to watch NBC's three-hour documentary 'Ladies & Gentlemen ... 50 Years of SNL Music" (Monday, 8 EST/PST, and streaming Tuesday on Peacock).
Yes, the deep dive into the genre-hopping performances from Billy Preston, the late-night sketch comedy show's first musical guest in 1975, to current pop sensations including Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo, is a romp.
But the brilliantly edited opening montage featuring an encyclopedia of music stars performing on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" is jaw-dropping in its execution.
A clip of Run-D.M.C. singing 'Walk This Way,' segueing to Cher singing 'And you walked away when I needed you most' from 'I Found Someone.' *NSYNC 'Bye Bye Bye'-ing across the stage melding on the beat to Destiny's Child's 'Survivor.' The slashing guitar of U2's 'Vertigo' meshing flawlessly with Eilish bopping through 'Bad Guy.'
It's an electrifying collage and a fitting opening to the three-hour documentary, part of "Saturday Night Live"'s 50th anniversary celebration.
How Questlove steered the 'SNL' music documentary
The architect behind 'Ladies & Gentlemen' is Roots drummer and music aficionado Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson, who co-directed the special with Oz Rodriguez, an "SNL" producer from seasons 38 to 44.
Questlove, 54, who DJs in clubs and plays with The Roots, the house band for NBC's 'Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon,' believes that people mostly remember the first and last five minutes of anything they watch.
So when his editor suggested blending Vanilla Ice's performance with Queen's 'Under Pressure' (famously sampled in 'Ice Ice Baby') for the opening of the documentary, Questlove knew they were about to create history.
Eleven months later, the chills-inspiring introduction was complete. 'I mean, the Captain Obvious thing would have been to do, like, the 50 best performances in the past 50 years on 'SNL.' That would have been easy,' Questlove says on a recent video call. 'But I don't do things easy.'
Questlove watched every episode of 'SNL' over three years
'SNL' executive producer Lorne Michaels pitched Questlove on a documentary about the show's music in early 2021, shortly after Questlove won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for his documentary 'Summer of Soul' (which also would nab an Oscar that year).
Questlove and Rodriguez were granted access to every episode of the show, including dress rehearsals, audio from the control room and the filming of promos. For almost three years, Questlove watched three to seven full episodes a day, on an endless loop.
Despite the avalanche of material, the pair wasn't interested in churning out a clip show. So, Questlove says, 'it became 'What is the story I want to tell?''
That story ranges from a funked-up Prince making his first appearance in 1981 with 'Partyup' to Rodrigo confessing she had a panic attack before her first appearance in 2021 with 'Drivers License.'
The performance that co-director Rodriguez spotlights as a possible best-of-all-time is David Bowie's avant-garde depiction of 'The Man Who Sold the World,' which fit the experimental vibe of the show circa 1979.
'The first five years of the show they were throwing stuff against the wall to see what stuck," Rodriguez says.
Miley Cyrus says 'SNL' does what 'no other show can do'
The show, as Miley Cyrus observes, 'changes the way you're seen in a way no other show can do.' And for proof, consider a baby-faced Adele, who says in a vintage clip that her 2008 performance of 'Chasing Pavements' sent her album from No. 45 to the top of the charts almost overnight.
'SNL' was also instrumental in promoting hip-hop. Debbie Harry, an unlikely ambassador for rap, pushed for Funky 4 + 1 to perform with her on an episode she hosted in 1981, marking the first national TV appearance by a hip-hop group.
Decades later, Kanye West created controversy, whether sporting a MAGA hat and giving a rambling political speech in 2018 or stomping off set because he was unhappy with lighting changes. 'Every time Kanye went on it was chaotic,' Rodriguez says. 'The performances were always cool, but there was always chaos.'
More: The best Season 50 'SNL' sketches from Season 50, from Nancy Grace to 'Sabado Gigante'
'SNL' doc explores Sinead O'Connor and Ashlee Simpson controversies
Two other frenzied moments in 'SNL' lore are explored thoroughly in the documentary: Sinead O'Connor ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II at the end of her striking performance of Bob Marley's 'War' in 1992 and Ashlee Simpson's 2004 lip-syncing debacle.
O'Connor essentially tricked producers, holding up a photo of a child at the song's end during dress rehearsal and requesting only a tight camera shot in the live show. "I saw this as a chance to put history in its proper context," Questlove says. "Because that was a heroic act."
The Simpson controversy also stems from dress rehearsal, where she lip-synced her second song to preserve her voice. Between rehearsal and air time, it was determined Simpson would lip-sync both songs. Her first song unspooled uneventfully, but in the second performance her drummer accidentally re-cued the vocals for the first.
Hearing the audio from the director's microphone while watching the scene unfold is a case study in the stress of live TV. Questlove, who calls such frantic moments "teachable lessons," said he reached out to Simpson − 'and everyone who had a controversial moment on the show' − to be interviewed for the documentary. He understood when she declined, but says, 'I would like my fellow musical peers and creatives to see the type of storyteller that I am and that I'm not in the gotcha journalism business.'
In "Ladies & Gentlemen ... ," Questlove is firmly in the lively documentary business.