Two Saturday Night Live musical mainstays bookended the NBC show’s live 50th anniversary episode last night (Feb. 15), as Paul Simon opened the festivities with “Homeward Bound” in tandem with Sabrina Carpenter and Paul McCartney wrapped the three-hour-plus bash with the medley from side two of the Beatles’ Abbey Road.
“I sang this song with George Harrison on Saturday Night Live in 1976,” said Simon, 83, who has performed rarely in recent years while suffering from hearing loss. “I was not born then, and neither were my parents,” quipped Carpenter, to which Simon replied, “I’m glad they’re getting a chance to hear it tonight.”
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McCartney, who played three intimate shows earlier this week at New York’s 575-capacity Bowery Ballroom, was the final musical act of the evening and was later positioned right next to SNL creator Lorne Michaels during the goodbyes segment. Carpenter also appeared in a sketch earlier in the show in which she parodied “Defying Gravity” from the hit musical film Wicked.
Other musical segments included Miley Cyrus teaming with Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard for the late Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a surprise Lil Wayne medley backed by the Roots and half-comedic, half-serious song from comedian and former cast member Adam Sandler saluting SNL‘s many milestones. That segment was introduced by 87-year-old legendary actor Jack Nicholson, marking his first major public appearances in some time.
The anniversary episode followed a dedicated music special on Feb. 13 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, which featured Lady Gaga, Post Malone fronting Nirvana, Jack White, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Bad Bunny and Bonnie Raitt with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, among many others.
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