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Dave Grohl has joined the list of performers who will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. The musician will take part in the SNL 50: The Homecoming Concert on Feb. 14 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City alongside Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Chris Martin, and more.

Grohl was not included in the initial lineup, announced last week, but does appear in a new promo for the special, which will stream live on Peacock. The concert special is executive produced by SNL creator Lorne Michaels and Mark Ronson,...

Classic rock star Marianne Faithfull was the inspiration for The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” She was fine with that at the time. Since then, she became more critical of the way that Mick Jagger and company treated her.

Marianne Faithfull on The Rolling Stones’ ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’

Faithfull’s career is inextricably linked with The Rolling Stones. She dated Jagger and they were one of the only celebrity couples to come out of the British Invasion. In addition, Jagger and Keith Richards co-wrote two of Faithfull’s signature songs: “As Tears Go By” and “Sister Morphine.” Interestingly, The Rolling Stones covered both of those songs after Faithfull released them. She also served as the muse for some of The Rolling Stones’ songs.

During a 2011 interview with Louder, Faithfull discussed The Rolling Stones at length. “Trouble is the Stones don’t give points,...

Paul McCartney and Marianne Faithfull were two of the artists who helped define the British Invasion. They had strong feelings about each other. A celebrity who was very close to Paul worried the cute Beatle had an affair with Faithfull.

Paul McCartney said Marianne Faithfull was a his lifelong friend

When people think of the British Invasion, they tend to think of all-male bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. Some of the biggest solo acts to come out of that trend were also men, like Donovan and Tom Jones. However, women also had a presence in the British Invasion. Female British singers who crossed over during that time included Petula Clark, Lulu, and Faithfull.

Faithfull had some notable connections to the guys from that scene. She famously dated The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, who co-wrote her signature song: “As Tears Go By.” She also performed one...

Some of the best classic rock songs are downright painful to hear at times. For example, Marianne Faithfull’s “As Tears Go By” is especially difficult to listen to now. Faithfull had positive things to say about the song, even if she seemed a little lukewarm about the famous rockers who wrote it.

Marianne Faithfull’s ‘As Tears Go By’ is the opposite of a Rolling Stones song

During the 1960s, The Rolling Stones earned a reputation for edgy rock songs like “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” and “Under My Thumb.” However, The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards took a break from provocation to write a ballad called “As Tears Go By.” The song is a beautiful baroque pop ballad. Its lyrics are devastating.

“As Tears Go By” is about someone watching children play. She realizes that she will never be able to feel their youthful joy again.

The Sixties and Seventies were nothing if not for rock and roll. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, and Led Zeppelin defined the era that played a major role in the evolution of music. However, the ’60s and ’70s were also known for their rough party scene, controversial romances, and dirty scandals.

Mick Jagger performing at the 50 And Counting Tour in Boston in 2013 [Photo by Michael Borkson, licensed under Cc By-sa 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons]

Among the many names that colored the tabloids and media headlines was Marianne Faithfull, a British singer and actress who achieved immense popularity when her single As Tears Go By hit the UK Top 5 in the 1960s. However, it was her turbulent 4-year relationship with The Rolling Stones frontman and founder Mick Jagger that went down in the history books.

The muse that moved rock legend Mick Jagger Mick Jagger in the 1970s [Photo by Bert Verhoeff, licensed under Cc By-sa 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons]

For a better part of the past century, music has evolved in...

Marianne Faithfull, the British singer and actor, has died. She was 78. Discovered during London, England’s ‘60s party scene, the “As Tears Go By” songstress’ life ended in the city where her career began.

Marianne Faithfull died ‘peacefully’ in London

Faithfull’s spokesperson announced her passing in a statement on Jan. 30, 2025. “It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” they said (via BBC). “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”

Faithfull’s cause of death wasn’t immediately disclosed. However, health issues had plagued her in recent years. She contracted Covid-19 in 2020, which resulted in a 22-day hospital stay and left her with long-term side effects. The singer previously battled breast cancer, bulimia, drug addiction, and emphysema. She is survived by her son, Nicholas Dunbar.

Faithfull released music,...

Mick Jagger may be the ultimate rockstar, but even he couldn’t outrun the chaos that followed. His whirlwind romance with Marianne Faithfull was straight out of a wild ‘60s fever dream — fame, rebellion, and, unfortunately, a whole lot of trouble.

Mick Jagger in The Burnt Orange Heresy | Credits: Indiana Production

When Faithfull found herself in serious legal heat over drug possession, Jagger pulled every trick in the book to keep her out of it. But the battle with addiction was bigger than any rock god’s influence.

Mick Jagger’s silent sacrifice to protect Marianne Faithfull from drugs and tragedy Marianne Faithfull in The Girl on a Motorcycle | Credits: Adel Productions

Marianne Faithfull’s struggles with drugs were no secret, and Mick Jagger did everything he could to shield her from the fallout. In 1967, when police raided Keith Richards’ home and found drugs in Jagger’s clothing, it was Faithfull’s stash.

The Rolling Stones have reportedly shelved a forthcoming U.K. and European tour planned for 2025. According to The Times, the rock band has scrapped the idea of hitting the road later this year.

The report says that the group — Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood — was presented with several offers for shows over the summer but dismissed them due to logistical issues surrounding the venues and travel, as well as preexisting commitments.

The shows included a “proposed multimillion-pound visit to Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium,” which the band members rejected.

Here’s a toast to Marianne Faithfull, a true rock & roll legend. Nobody was ever better at being an old rock star, except maybe Leonard Cohen. Yet the difference is that Cohen didn’t release his debut album until he was 33 — he was never young in public. Faithfull was a Sixties dolly bird who was on Top of the Pops in her teens, singing “As Tears Go By,” just another disposable pop ingenue. She played Ophelia in the 1970 film version of Hamlet, a hauntingly tragic performance, at a time when...

Marianne Faithfull, the iconic English singer and songwriter who first appeared in the mid-1960s, then returned after years of personal problems, including heroin addiction and homelessness, with her masterful 1979 album “Broken English,” died surrounded by her family at her London home on January 30. Though known mainly for her music, in the late 1960s she embarked on a career as a film actress (best known for “The Girl on a Motorcycle”) that was cut short by turmoil in her life. She was 78.

Best known initially for “As Tears Go By” in 1964 when she was only 17 (the song was co-written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) her father was a career military man and intelligence officer and Italian literature professor, her mother from Austrian-Hungarian nobility. She was initially discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones’ manager.

She quickly fell in with the Stones (eventually becoming Jagger’s lover and sometime...

The music star was also an electrifying screen presence, from The Girl on a Motorcycle to Marie Antoinette

Marianne Faithfull, singular icon of British pop, dies aged 78Marianne Faithfull was a towering artist, not just the muse she was painted as

On the screen and also in life, Marianne Faithfull experienced something similar to her contemporary Anita Pallenberg – the condescension of being treated like an icon or a muse. Maybe her very real success in music ruled her out of a serious acting career in the eyes of some, but Faithfull for a while occupied the epicentre of the late-60s pop culture zeitgeist, for an intense flashbulb moment she found herself in the overlapping worlds of music, movies and the explodingly important world of celebrity itself.

The famous photograph of her in 1967 on a couch between Alain Delon and Mick Jagger absolutely captures her magnetism: Delon is entranced by her,...

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

The legendary singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull died Thursday at the age of 78 at her home in London. Dubbed one of the best singers of all time, Rolling Stone described Faithfull as an artist “who transcended ‘it girl’ status in the Sixties with a stunning second act as a singer-songwriter of earned hard wisdom.”

“I am so saddened to hear of the death of Marianne Faithfull,” Mick Jagger shared in...

Gold Derby’s top news stories for Jan. 30, 2025 Marianne Faithfull, Grammy-nominated singer, actress, and muse of Mick Jagger, dies at 78

Marianne Faithfull, the British performer who traveled a bumpy road from fresh-voiced pop star (as well as muse and girlfriend of Rolling Stones‘ frontman Mick Jagger) in the 1960s to homeless heroin addict and ultimately a musical comeback in the late 1970s, died on Thursday in London. She was 78. No cause of death was cited.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter, and actress Marianne Faithfull,” read a statement from her publicist. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”

Faithfull emerged in the Swinging ’60s, plucked from obscurity by the Stones manager at 16 and in 1964 recorded “As Tears Go By,” becoming an overnight sensation with the Jagger-Keith Richards tune...

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We have some sad news to report from the world of music:

Marianne Faithfull — the singer, actress, and author who became a generational icon in the 1960s — has passed away at the age of 78.

News of Faithfull’s deaths comes to us courtesy of a statement from her family:

English actress and singer Marianne Faithfull, UK, 6th November 1970. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Marianne Faithfull’s Cause of Death

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” the statement reads (via the BBC).

“Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”

No official cause of death was given, but Faithfull’s health problems have been well documented through the years.

English singer Marianne Faithfull in her Kensington flat, 5th August 1965. (Photo by Stephan...

Marianne Faithfull, the British singer who scored hits including “As Tears Go By” and “Broken English” as she went from a highly publicized romantic relationship with Mick Jagger to worldwide fame in her own right, died Thursday. She was 78.

Faithfull’s death in London was announced by her family in a statement to the BBC.

Faithfull also appeared in such films as I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (1967) and The Girl on the Motorcycle (1968) and on the stage in Three Sisters and Hamlet, though her career was curtailed in the 1970s by heroin addiction, alcoholism and homelessness.

She forged a dramatic comeback in 1979 with the album Broken English, which landed her a Grammy nomination for best female rock vocal performance. In 2011, she was awarded the Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of France’s highest cultural honors.

Born on Dec. 29, 1946, in Hampstead, London, Faithfull was the daughter of...

Marianne Faithfull, the legendary singer responsible for songs such as the ’60s standard “As Tears Go By,” has sadly passed away at the age of 78.

A spokesperson for the singer and actress confirmed the news in a statement.

Keep reading to find out more…

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” her spokesperson told BBC. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”

A cause of death was not revealed.

Aside from her successful career, Marianne famously dated Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger in the ’60s.

Marianne was one of the first celebrities to publicly reveal that she was diagnosed with Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic in 2020. The following year, she said that she was struggling with side effects of long Covid, adding that there were...

Legendary English singer Marianne Faithfull has died at the age of 78.

According to a statement from her family, Faithfull “passed away peacefully” on Thursday, January 30th. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

A defining voice of the 1960s, Faithfull first rose to fame with the song “As Tears Go By,” which was written for her by The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. She proceeded to release several more hit singles throughout the decade, but her career became largely overshadowed by her tumultuous personal life, which included a high-profile relationship with Jagger and battles with addiction. Several of The Rolling Stones’ songs were apparently inspired by Jagger and Faithfull’s relationship, including “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Wild Horses,” and “Sister Morphine.”

Jagger remembered Faithfull in a statement released shortly after her passing, writing: “She was so much part of my life for so long.

Marianne Faithfull, a pioneering artist who transcended “it girl” status in the Sixties for a stunning second act as a singer-songwriter with great depth, died Thursday at age 78.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” the singer’s rep said in a statement. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family.”

Faithfull became a breakout star in 1964 with her first single, the ballad “As Tears Go By.” The beloved track would be the...

The actor on saying yes to everything except pornography, working with ‘sweet’ Mick Jagger and why he wants to play a detective like Humphrey Bogart

What do you think is the dark “thing” directors see in you when they cast you as the antagonist? link98

That is assuming they see a dark thing, right? There have been quite a lot of those nasty ones. I honestly don’t know, because I think I’m quite nice.

Your performance often explores complex, morally ambiguous characters, from Christian in The Square to Dracula. What draws you to these roles, and how do you approach finding humanity in such layered, sometimes dark, figures? WeirdDug

I’m drawn because there’s often more to play with. You can get out all your Legos and have fun. It’s quite fulfilling. Dracula’s not so nice, but he’s so over the top and actually quite sympathetic.

NBC continues to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live” with the new documentary, “Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music.” Following the recent four-episode docuseries “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night,” amid the 50th season, which airs Sundays, and ahead of the star-studded, three-hour primetime event “SNL50: The Anniversary Special,” the feature-length music doc promises a deep dive into the musical performances that have become as much of a cultural hallmark as the comedy show’s sketches.

The doc is directed by Grammy and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Emmy Award winner Oz Rodriguez, and features a roster of more than 50 interviews with musicians and “SNL” staffers, including Elvis Costello, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish & Finneas, Dave Grohl, Debbie Harry & Chris Stein, Mick Jagger, Dua Lipa, Lorne Michaels, Fred Armisen, Conan O’Brien, Bill Hader, Eddie Murphy, Maya Rudolph, Bowen Yang and many, many more.

Here is when and where...

Back in the Eighties and Nineties, the release of a major rock star memoir was a fairly uncommon event. Noteworthy ones like George Harrison’s I, Me, Mine (1980), Iggy Pop’s I Need More (1982), and David Lee Roth’s Crazy From the Heat (1997) popped up every once in a while, but it wasn’t until the 2000s that this genre started making regular appearances on The New York Times bestseller list, thanks to landmark works like Anthony Kiedis’ Scar Tissue, Bob Dylan’s Chronicles: Volume One, Eric Clapton’s The Autobiography,...

NBC is celebrating 50 years of Saturday Night Live by honoring all of the musical guests in a new three-hour special.

Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music is airing on NBC on Monday night (January 27) and will feature untold stories behind the culture-defining, groundbreaking and news-making musical performances, sketches and cameos of the past 50 years.

The special will showcase interviews with musical artists, cast, writers, producers and more who have been part of SNL’s legacy.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Questlove, who leads the band on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, directed the special with Emmy Award winner Oz Rodriguez.

“Everyone knows the most famous SNL appearances, whether it’s Elvis Costello, Prince or the Beastie Boys, but they’re the tip of a huge iceberg,” Questlove said. “The process of going back through the incredible archival footage was like being in a time machine, DeLorean or other. I’m so happy...

“I really can’t think of another thing that is as powerful, inspirational and huge as SNL is,” Billie Eilish says in Questlove’s Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music documentary.

The Summer of Soul director has dived deep into the archives to put some context around the hundreds of musical performances ahead of the show’s 50th anniversary special next month.

As Mick Jagger says, “If you think about it, what you’ve got is something which wouldn’t have existed if it hadn’t been for SNL, you’ve got this huge, broad, popular music library of performances from this period.”

Questlove opens the two-hour film with an incredible seven-minute remix of some of the most iconic performances on Saturday Night Live (watch below).

Ladies & Gentlemen… features interviews with the likes of Eilish, Jagger, Jack White, Dave Grohl, Debbie Harry, Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo and Justin Timberlake as well as numerous SNL figures.

A new documentary titled Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music is set to premiere Monday night (January 27th) on NBC. One of the key revelations from the film is that Rage Against the Machine were locked down by the US Secret Service following their performance of “Bulls on Parade” on the late-night sketch show.

Ratm were the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on April 13th, 1996, an episode hosted by billionaire Steve Forbes, who was then a recent Republican presidential candidate.

As the story’s been told, Rage Against the Machine had their crew hang upside down American flags on their amps, but the flags were removed by the SNL stage crew right before the band launched into the song. Ratm never got to play their second song, “Bullet in the Head,” and have since never been invited back to play on the show.

In the new documentary, Ratm guitarist...

No matter how a person might feel about “Saturday Night Live”’s jokes or cast or host choices, there’s absolutely no denying that for the better part of the last half century, it has been the most consistently powerful platform in America for musicians, whether they’re superstars, rising stars or falling stars.

Virtually every major artist has performed on it, and for musicians on the rise, it’s a sign that they have almost arrived, that they’ve attained enough popularity or curiosity or — perhaps most important — controversy for the show to take a chance on them. It was the first mainstream American television show to feature new wave (Devo 1978), hip-hop (Funky Four Plus One 1981), hardcore punk, and many other sub-genres.

What serious music fan can’t remember a classic performance on the show, if not a dozen, if not 50? David Bowie — who delivered arguably the best all-time...

Fred Armisen recalls how Saturday Night Live helped shape his musical taste and led him to create one of his own great sketches — “Band Reunion at the Wedding” — in a new exclusive clip from Questlove’s upcoming documentary, Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music.

“SNL was such a huge part of my musical taste,” Armisen says at the top of the clip. “Not just that I liked the bands that were on there, but it influenced the way I wanted to make art. And ‘Band Reunion at the Wedding’ is...

“Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)” is a dazzling and definitive funk-pop documentary. It’s the second “jawn” directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, and he has leveled up from his first, “Summer of Soul” — though that lyrical-flashback-to-1969-in-Harlem concert film, in its way, was beautiful. In “Sly Lives!,” Questlove confronts the life and legacy of Sly Stone, investigates it, holds it up to the light, tears it apart, and puts it back together like the bravura mixmaster he is. Sly’s first hit was “Dance to the Music,” and Questlove wants you to dance to the music, to feel it and think it, know how it was made, and hear how its vibrations went out into the world. This is a movie made by a maestro musician and D.J.-turned-master director.

Jammed with penetrating interviews and extraordinary archival footage, “Sly Lives!” is a movie that knows how to...

As the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live continues, the first trailer for Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music has arrived. The documentary, directed by Questlove, will be released on January 27th, and the newly unveiled trailer promises interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and breakdowns of some of the show’s most iconic musical moments. Watch it below.

Questlove, who earned an Oscar for his direction on the Summer of Soul documentary, has assembled an impressive list of talent to comment on the half-century of musical history. This includes Jack White, Dave Grohl, Mick Jagger, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, and a number of SNL cast members both past and present who appear in the footage to share memories of their time on the iconic set.

“They want to see you dangle, they don’t want to see you fall,” Cyrus says of the notoriously chaotic structure of the show.

“You have to run from the music sketch,...

As a kid, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson would go to bed on Saturday nights at 8:30 p.m., but his parents were “cool enough” to wake him up to watch the musical performances on Saturday Night Live as well as Soul Train. So when he got the call from Lorne Michaels to direct a documentary of the musical side of the series celebrating 50 years, he was ready.

But he did more research. “I knew those episodes by heart,” says Questlove, who got the call in 2020 to work on Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music and was 4 years old when SNL launched in 1975. “I was trying to do the math in my head. I’m like, ‘Well, it’s 2020 and the anniversary is in 2025. If I can do about five to seven episodes daily, then maybe I can catch up to it.”

Questlove, who won the best documentary feature Oscar in 2022 for Summer of Soul,...

Some people listen to classic rock songs to feel the machismo. However, the best classic rock acts, from The Beatles to U2, know how to make you cry as well. Here are five songs that find the beauty in heartbreak.

5. ‘Yesterday’ by The Beatles

How could anyone write a list like this without The Beatles’ “Yesterday?” The simple ballad of love gone wrong has become one of the biggest standards of all time. Artists as eclectic as Elvis Presley, Marvin Gaye, Frank Sinatra, Linkin Park, and Jay-Z all put their spin on the song. And it’s easy to see why.

This track has lyrics that are perfect in their simplicity. “Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away / Now it looks as though they’re here to stay / Oh, I believe in yesterday” is a breathtakingly sad opening verse. This tune will be with us forever.

4. ‘As Tears Go By...

Live from New York, it’s Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music. The first trailer for the upcoming Questlove-directed documentary is a two-minute celebration of one of television’s most iconic stages.

In the clip, featured hosts from throughout Saturday Night Live‘s 50 seasons introduce musical guests Charli Xcx, Prince, Adele, Bob Dylan, Bad Bunny, and more.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen until 11:30 p.m.,” Dua Lipa, who has performed on the show three times including last year’s double-duty gig, says in the trailer.

Plot: A feature-length documentary featuring the untold stories behind the culture-defining, groundbreaking and news-making musical performances, sketches, and cameos of the past 50 years. Co-directed by Questlove, the three-hour special broadcast event will showcase interviews with musical artists, cast, writers, producers, and more from SNL’s legacy.

Review: As the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Saturday Night Live kicks into high gear this month, there are a slew of specials and documentaries looking at the storied legacy of the NBC variety show. While Peacock is the home for the behind-the-scenes chronicle of the comedians and cast that have traversed the SNL stage, NBC will be airing the two-hour documentary Ladies and Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music. Directed by The Roots band member and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Emmy Award winner Oz Rodriguez, the documentary looks at the hundreds of legendary performers who have performed on the Lorne Michaels-created show.

The advent of streaming has made it harder than ever for musicians to make the big bucks. But there appears to be at least one way for songwriters to keep cashing them checks — compose the theme song for endlessly repeating basic-cable shows.

That’s the success formula for Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh, who’s made way more money from “Uncontrollable Urge,” the theme song for Rob Dyrdek’s Ridiculousness, than he ever earned from the group’s biggest hit, “Whip It.” Despite the song never getting anywhere near the Billboard Hot 100, it airs around the clock on MTV where Ridiculousness can run up to 14 hours a day. Ka-ching!

“I’ve written so many other songs for films and television shows,” Mothersbaugh told Rolling Stone about his compositions for Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Rugrats and multiple Wes Anderson films. At an earlier age, “I would’ve been shocked if you told me...

In the earliest days of MTV, few songs were more inescapable than Devo’s fractured New Wave classic “Whip It.” With hardly any bands making music videos when MTV launched in 1981, the fledgling network, desperate for content, played the song nearly every hour, turning “Whip It” into one of the most recognizable hits of the Eighties and catapulting the band into ubiquitous, if unlikely, visual icons.

Today, another Devo track dominates MTV’s airwaves.

While “Whip It” is Devo’s best-known song, it’s far from lead singer and primary...

Don’t be too dazzled when host Timothée Chalamet double-dips as his own musical guest on Saturday Night Live later this month. Sure, it’s impressive, but not that unusual — he’ll be the 49th host to pull off the feat. But most of those hosts, from Mick Jagger to Dolly Parton to Charli Xcx, were musicians first who muddled their way through a few comedy sketches. Chalamet is one of the rare SNL hosts to attempt the reverse.

Here are five performers not known primarily for music who nonetheless rocked the house on SNL…

1 Lily Tomlin

Well, here’s a weird one. When Tomlin showed up in Season Eight for her third hosting gig, the musical guest was Black R&b singer Pervis Hawkins — a Tomlin character in full beard. The songs have been scrubbed from the Peacock episode, and there are no clips on YouTube, presumably because Tomlin performed the character in blackface.

We are living in the golden age of the rock biopic. Until very recently, films like The Doors, Ray, Walk the Line, and Love and Mercy popped up only once every few years. But in roughly the past half-decade alone, we’ve seen Bohemian Rhapsody, Bob Marley: One Love, Back to Black, Rocketman, Respect, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, and Elvis. This past Christmas, we got the story of Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown, and Better Man, in which an anthropomorphic chimpanzee “plays” Robbie Williams. And in the coming months and years,...

One of the biggest classic rock albums of the 1980s was U2’s Rattle and Hum. Bono revealed U2’s approach to the album was inspired by The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. Here’s how those two albums compared.

The 1 aspect of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Exile on Main St.’ inspired U2’s ‘Rattle and Hum’

During a 1988 interview with Hot Press, Bono discussed the impetus behind U2’s Rattle and Hum. “This was a record made by fans — we wanted to own up to being fans,” he said. “And we thought rock ‘n’ roll bands just don’t do that — we all know they are, but they don’t do it. The Rolling Stones did it on Exile on Main St., sort of, and it was a kind of role model.”

Exile on Main St. is arguably the most acclaimed record of The Rolling Stones’ career. Its most...

Chappell Roan is taking Elton John Aids Foundation’s Oscars Watch Party to the “Pink Pony Club!” On Tuesday, the foundation announced that Roan will perform at the annual gala on March 2.

“David and I are thrilled to gather with friends and supporters once again, and we’re honored to welcome the bold and authentic Chappell Roan as this year’s performer, whose artistry embodies the power of music to inspire change,” John said in a statement about her upcoming performance.

While Roan will take on performance duties, Jean Smart,...

Andrew Wyatt is a songwriter and producer who has worked with Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Miley Cyrus. Andrew Watt also is a songwriter and producer who has worked with Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Miley Cyrus. They often get mistaken for each other. “I get congratulated for winning an Oscar, and he doesn’t,” Watt says of Wyatt, who won the 2019 best original song Academy Award for “Shallow,” from A Star Is Born. “People come up to me and say, ‘I love your work with The Rolling Stones,’ ” Wyatt says, referring to Watt, who worked on Mick Jagger and company’s 2025 Grammy-nominated Hackney Diamonds and is nominated himself for producing songs for Pearl Jam and Gaga and Mars. He adds: “At this point, literally I’m so sick of correcting people. I just say thank you.”

Watt may joke about masquerading as an Oscar winner, but it could very...

As fans are well aware, a number of famous rock stars contributed to Monty Python projects — Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd all helped to finance Monty Python and the Holy Grail, George Harrison mortgaged his home to pay for Life of Brian and, more recently, Mick Jagger introduced the troupe’s reunion show press conference while implicitly poking fun at his own career.

Despite this cozy relationship, few musicians took any direct artistic inspiration from the sketch comedians — although Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson did name-check Monty Python while attempting to explain the album Thick as a Brick.

But in 1988, one of the biggest rock supergroups in music history, The Traveling Wilburys, included more than one shout-out to the Pythons in their debut album.

The group’s stacked lineup included George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne and the legendary Roy Orbison. According to Orbison’s son,...

Eighties pop icons Boy George and Culture Club are set to conquer Rome.

The gender-bending British singer-songwriter, who gave the world hits like “Karma Chameleon” and “The Crying Game,” will headline the city’s New Year’s Eve concert at Rome’s ancient chariot-racing stadium The Circus Maximus. The stadium, which has hosted the likes of Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen, has room for more than 100,000 people. The City of Rome is bankrolling the concert, so tickets to see Boy George are free. The Circus Maximus should be packed.

The gig only came together over the last week. Originally, the controversial right-wing Italian rapper Tony Effe was supposed to be headlining the New Year’s Eve bash, but, on Dec. 16, amid a public backlash, the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, canceled the performance.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter Roma, the mayor said city authorities had made a mistake inviting the rapper.

In the fall of 1990, inside a fully functional second floor magic shop located above a methadone clinic on Hollywood Boulevard, Bryan Rabin made his first splash on the Los Angeles nightlife scene (alongside his partner, the late actor Jimmy Medina) with a traveling, if extralegal, after hours club called The Lounge. “It was the Wild West. We’d just drive around at night and look for spots. I was 20 years old, full of moxie, and we’d just tell people we wanted to throw a bar mitzvah in their space,” recalls Rabin, noting the club migrated from photography and film studios to empty lofts and attracted everyone from Billy Idol to Thierry Mugler and Wolfgang Puck to dance there. “We moved every week to keep away from the police and had to call or fax everyone the day of each party.”

From there, he opened Prague in a Czechoslovakian meeting hall on Western Avenue,...

In the "The Simpsons" episode "How I Spend My Strummer Vacation", Homer (Dan Castellaneta) is caught on camera, drunkenly confessing that having a family never allowed him to realize his dreams of becoming a rock star. His family hears the confession and, while angry, also understand that many of Homer's dreams are indeed stifled by his domestic existence. As a favor, they enroll him in a sleepaway rock 'n' roll camp run by the Rolling Stones.

Homer gets to interact with the camp's many celebrity counselors, all of them playing themselves. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards lay out the syllabus for the camp: Campers are to take singing and guitar/bass/drum lessons, and will, at the end of the week, put on a show. The counselors include Brian Setzer, Lenny Kravitz, and Elvis Costello. The lyrics workshop is taught by Tom Petty.

Petty, during his lesson, announces that lyrics...

Alfa Anderson, an early lead vocalist for Chic who sang on hits including “Good Times” and “Le Freak,” died on Dec. 17 at age 78. Chic bandmate Nile Rodgers confirmed the news.

“Thank you for everything,” Rodgers wrote on Tuesday, Dec. 17 on Instagram, sharing a montage of photos of him and Anderson, and the band. Chic’s “At Last I Am Free,” one of Anderson’s solo features from 1978 sophomore album C’est Chic, soundtracks the tribute. “Rip Alfa Anderson. Chic organization,” it reads over the montage. “Forever loved.” No further details about her death were given.

Alfa Anderson, the one-time lead vocalist of Chic who sang on classic disco songs including “Le Freak,” “Good Times,” and “I Want Your Love,” has died at the age of 78.

Nile Rodgers, the leader of Chic, shared news of Anderson’s passing on social media on Saturday. A cause of death was not disclosed.

After getting her start as a backing vocalist for artists such as Dionne Warwick and Roy Buchanan and vocal work on The Wiz soundtrack, Anderson auditioned for a role in Chic in 1977. She assumed co-lead vocalist following the departure of Norma Jean Wright in 1978 and went on to sing on some of the group’s biggest solo hits. She was also featured on Chic’s collaborations with artists including Sister Sledge (“We Are Family”), Diana Ross (Diana), and Johnny Mathis (I Love My Lady).

Following Chic’s initial disbandment in 1983, Anderson toured internationally with Luther Vandross.

Ideas of what constitutes the ideal vacation range from tracking gorillas to collapsing on the beach with a Negroni, but one thing is clear: whatever the preference, festive week is an excuse for nearly everyone to escape work and put projects on hold while they regroup and reenergize.

THR spoke to the most in-demand Hollywood concierges to ask where the jet-setters and yacht-machers are heading this week. Some destinations, like St. Barts and Aspen, are perennials, drawing the entertainment industry each Christmas week, while others, like Spert Island off Antarctica, where Liev Schreiber ventured last year, or Mahabalipuram in Southern India, where Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones journeyed for the holiday, trend for a moment.

“Tons of people are going St. Barts again,’’ says Jaclyn Sienna India, founder of the membership based luxury lifestyle company Sienna Charles, whose excursions range from $75,000 to $250,0000.

We can, of course, expect regulars like David Geffen,...

I think 90 Day Fiancé star Libby Potthast Castravet wears rose-colored glasses sometimes, looking for the best in a husband, Andrei Castravet, who often treats her badly. A lot of people in relationships put up with more than they should. In matters of love, it's a fine line between compromising and being a doormat. While I respect Libby and feel that she's a fundamentally good person, who's perhaps been too dependent on her family for money and employment in the past, I don't always trust Andrei.

It's down to me

The difference in the clothes she wears

Down to me, the change has come

She's under my thumb

The thing is, I actually think Andrei loves Libby. It's just that he's such a hothead. Sometimes, Andrei can't help but freak out, and when he does, he may really hurt his wife. It reminds me of that Rolling Stones song, Under My Thumb,...

Live from New York, it’s the music of Saturday Night Live!

The documentary Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music, directed by Academy Award winner Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Emmy Award winner Oz Rodriguez, will premiere Monday, Jan. 27 at 8/7c on NBC (and stream next day on Peacock).

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The program will feature “untold stories behind the culture-defining, groundbreaking and newsmaking musical performances, sketches and cameos of the past 50 years,...

To help launch the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live (officially next October), the feature-length documentary Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music from Oscar- and Grammy-winning director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (Summer of Soul) and produced by Oz Rodriguez will premiere Jan. 27, 2025, on NBC.

Thompson is also among the doc’s bevy of executive producers along with SNL creator Lorne Michaels.

The three-hour special promises to feature the untold stories behind the musical performances, sketches, and cameos of the past half-century. Fifty musical artists, cast members, writers, and producers from throughout SNL’s colorful history dating back to the mid-1970s were interviewed for the film — including Bad Bunny, DJ Breakout, Elvis Costello, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish & Finneas, Dave Grohl, Debbie Harry & Chris Stein, Mick Jagger, Dua Lipa, Darryl Dmc McDaniels, Tom Morello, Kacey Musgraves, Olivia Rodrigo, Mc Sha-Rock, Paul Simon, Chris Stapleton, Justin Timberlake, Lee Ving, and Jack White.

As the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live continues, NBC has announced a new documentary celebrating the musical guests that have been a critical part of the show’s journey throughout half a century. Titled Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music, the feature was directed by Questlove and is set to premiere on NBC on January 27th.

The Roots member, who took home an Oscar for his direction on the Summer of Soul documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969, has teamed up with Emmy Award-winner Oz Rodriguez for the upcoming project. The film is said to include “untold stories behind the culture-defining, groundbreaking and news-making musical performances, sketches and cameos of the past 50 years,” and will feature more than 50 interviews.

Made up of insights from dozens of artists, Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music teases appearances from Dave Grohl, Mick Jagger, Elvis Costello, Dua Lipa, Kacey Musgraves,...