Saturday Night’s Best Musical Impersonations

Saturday Night’s Best Musical Impersonations

Now this is the stuff that dreams are made of. These are some of the coolest moments in Saturday Night Live history. 

These are the moments when the stars of the show, and the hosts get to be other people. In my mind, it is one thing to act , it is another thing to do impressions, and when they are done good, then it is a thing of beauty.

Really quickly, I want to point out, that I use the words imitation, impression, and impersonation, freely, and to mean the same things.  I know that there are slightly different meanings to the word, but I am not a God Damn dictionary or thesaurus, so just accept it.

These are great moments because, in some of the instances, you get to see a musician portray a different one, in other instances it is just an SNL cast member, and sometiomes the parodies even cross over,  and the artist is actually involved in their parody.   

I once again decided not to make a top ten, ranking these is near impossible. But here are my favorites

Also, Not that I am lazy, but some of these occur multiple times, and what not, so I am not adding dates or long lengthy details. In fact I may be very minimalistic today, as an attempt to highlight what I find as good music and comedy

Doggie Duty Soundtrack

This one is kind of recent, but it is hilarious nonetheless. It is a compilation of sorts.  It is a commercial for a fake movie, called Doggie Duty.

But then it also highlights the soundtrack to the movie, with great spins on some classic songs and great artists.  They basically take cool songs and make them about Dogs.  Some of the shit is so obscure and weird that, you have to be a music lover to get it.

That is why it works for me. Like I said, this was really recent, but the only recent song parody you hear is at the end. They keep it fresh and dig back.

For me, the moments that are hilarious are Fred Armisen as Randy Newman, He fucking hits it spot on,  I love the Spin Doctors reference, because I loved the Spin Doctors, and everyone should remember them, and that really is what the guy looked like. 

Also, Bill Hader as Clint Eastwood, makes no fucking sense, but I have heard Eastwood sing, and Hader is Spot on.

Finally, I will tell you the last singer is indeed Katy Perry, doing an awesome imitation. I love it.  I won’t tell you who she does I will leave that as a surprise.

Van Morrison Salutes St Patrick’s Day

First let me say that this is just the beginning of the Jimmy Fallon bits, for those of you that don’t realize it yet, I think he is a comic and musical genius.

At the same time, I love Van Morrison and as I have said before Van Morrison is one of the few artists that my father and I agree on. So there is a weird connection there for me.

Top it off now with the fact that I met  The woman of the house at a St Patrick’s Day Celebration thing(where I had more drinks than Fallon does in this clip) and not to mention The Woman is Irish (yes she is a mean drunk) ( No- Not really, but she swears a lot)(Only when she is drinking) (Which is constantly) (No that’s a joke, but you would think living with me would drive her to drink constantly) (I love you sweetie)

I used enough parenthesis in that last sentence to skin a cat.

Ok so put all that stuff together and what do you get, A jimmy Fallon masterpiece that is so fucking spot on it is unbelieavable.

One last note,  Even though the sketch is claimed to be sponsored by Guinness, Jimmy is drinking Light Beer, My understanding of why this happened was that they had tried various ways to make the guiness look full in the glass, without jimmy having to down full glasses of Guinness (Hey I like it too, but not 4 gallons in ten seconds)  So because they couldn’t do it, they cancelled the sketch, and the guys drank all the Guinness.   So then, someone realized they had extra time in the show, and the damn thing is live, so they added back last second  and grabbed whatever beer that they could.

So here man, and Happy early  St Patrick’s Day

Stevie Nicks’ Fajita Round Up

Ok, this brings up so many cool things. , First of all, If you have been playing along at home, then you are aware that I think Stevie Nicks is the shit.

So move along then.  Portraying Nicks is Lucy Lawless.  Who the Fuck is Lucy Lawless you ask?  She was Xena, from that Show Xena the warrior. Yeah it was a huge popular show.   Now she is in many different shows and movies.  But that is who she is.

On top of that she really is a singer with her own music career and she is not bad at all. Honestly it makes no sense how good she is at singing, when she is such an ass kicker.

She also does an incredible Stevie Nicks impersonation. It is hilarious, and funny as all hell. Andd it makes me hungry.   Oh and yes that is a young Jimmy Fallon playing the piano

lucy lawless by dummy-account

Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra write a hit!

As I explained yesterday, Saturday Night Live in the early 80’s  wasn’t in its prime.  But this is probably one of the funniest and best things that came out of that era.(ok maybe not but pretty damn close)

Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo were basically the stars of the shows in the 80s and everyone thought they would both become great stars. Well, people were half right.  I have no idea what became of Joe Piscopo, and we all know what happened with Eddie.

But in this scene they play Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra, and they both are god damn incredible.  I love Frank Sinatra and think that he is a great artist.  (I like Dean better but Frank will do)  I also appreciate  everything that Stevie Wonder does. Well most of it.

Honestly Piscopo does a great Frank, one of the best by a comedian. But Murphy’s Wonder is through the roof, and so spot on. He was a god damn star.

The song they do is also hilarious, as are their conversations. Really is a great thing.

Parodie Eddie Murphy & Joe Piscopo by PeteRock

Devin the Pandora Intern

This is another pretty recent one. And the premise behind it is completely ridiculous, but that is what makes it even more hilarious.

So we are sent to this make believe world that is the office of Pandora. I have no idea how Pandora actually works or what their offices look like, but I am pretty sure this is not it.  This looks more like a Star Trek set than anything else. But again that adds to the hilarity.

So then the power goes out, and Pandora loses its vocal feed, so in order to fix it, they have Devin their intern come in and sing the vocals of peoples different songs.   He is good

So it is Bruno Mars doing the imitations, and he doesn’t just do voices, he does mannerisms and singing styles.   I will tell you right away the first one is the worst. And it gets better and better.

Surprisingly he doesn’t do Elvis, which is weird because he got his start as an Elvis Impersonator.

I don’t want to spoil it, but when he grabs Jason Sudeikis’ hand for one of the legendary dance move I just about pissed myself.

So check it out, let the whole thing play through. Totally worth it.

With A Little Help From My Friends

We discussed Joe Cocker yesterday, so it should come as no surprise that John Belushi doing his impersonation  all alone has made the list.

Belushi does everything, vocally  mannerisms  over the top antics, beer everywhere.

This set the bar for all other musical imitations,  Belushi did this on the third episode of the show, at the request of Rob Reiner, the guest host of the night.  

This was the Musical guest performance. I mean that is how great it was, how revered it was that this was the Musical guest; John Belushi doing his old Joe Cocker impersonation. (he started doing it long before SNL existed.)

Watch John Belushi - With A Little Help From My Friend in Comedy  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

The Miley Cyrus show, with guest Justin Bieber

So  this is from 2011, before Miley Cyrus got all crazy, and well Justin Bieber too.

 Vanessa Bayer is the SNL cast member who does a good old fashioned Miley. And she does the Miley Cyrus show every now and then.  (usually depends who is there)

So in this episode Bayer portrays Miley as always , so Miley comes out and portrays Biebs/.

Sure they make the stupid Salvia reference. (get over it Miley gets high. In retrospect some might wish that was the worst she ever did.)

But all in all. I think Miley is Hilarious as Bieber, and that is the point that I really wanted to get across, plus I always think it is cool when  celebrities are present when someone is impersonating them. It also has to be nerve racking for Bayer, to do it right there.

Oh BTW  Jason Sudeikis as Billy Ray Cyrus is Pretty Cool.

James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub Party

That title alone tells you how fucking Hilarious this is. I mean, seriously  who came up with this shit?

Eddie Murphy is undeniable as James Brown.  But what I really want to know is how they set up a God damn hot tub in the midst of a studio?  

I love that the band is ready for the whole thing and just wearing robes. Nothing looks as good as Murphy’s gold speedo.  His dancing is pretty killer as well . And the guy that gives him the cape, in perfect James Brown fashion.  I love it.

He dips his toe, then does the James Brown Heyyy.  Come on this whole thing is genius

Just watch!!

James brown celebrity hottub by codordog

Beyoncé and Jay Z introduce Blue Ivy

Maya Rudolph is incredible as Beyoncé  but  Jay Pharoah -the guy that does Jay Z  is fucking incredible. He looks nothing like him but he has the voice down so beautifully perfect.

Then the whole line of celebrities come in, Fred Armisen is Hilarious as Prince. Nicki Minaj is done by a girl that I don’t even know her name, but she is pretty good.

Well you know what, I don’t want to give it all away the whole thing is incredible, wait until you see Justin Timberlake.  It still makes me fall off my chair.  Seriously I love it.

“Did he just say don’t be a muggle?”

“I don’t know but White Butler is really into it!”

Check it

The Barry Gibb Talk Show

There are multiple multiple versions of this, and every time I find out Jimmy and/ or JT is going to be on the show, I get excited for the prospect of the  Barry Gibb talk show.

Typically Jimmy Fallon is known for his inability to get through sketches without cracking up. But when you get these two together on the Barry Gibb Talk Show  Justin Timberlake can’t control himself.

It is just a complete nonsense sketch revolved around Barry Gibb having a political talk show with his brother being his side man, and the two just sing everything. 

This is why I am so excited for this week’s episode. I can’t wait. Oh and BTW I haven’t gotten any RSVP’S for Saturday night, what’s the deal?

Ok, so  Those are the ten moments in SNL history that I believe are the greatest musical impersonations, as always, If I left something off let me know.

Again I hope that the clips last.  They were hard to find, but also the BG talk show was easy to find. NBC must want me to promote this week’s show for them.  Well I will.