Elvis Costello Explains Why He Switched to Singing "Radio, Radio" on SNL in 1977
Costello's unexpected switch to playing "Radio, Radio" led to some mythologizing in its aftermath, the singer explains in Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music.
Elvis Costello’s controversial 1977 appearance on Saturday Night Live has been a part of late night lore for almost 50 years.
The performance went down in the SNL history books as one of the most surprising since the show's 1975 debut. Costello made the unexpected decision to switch songs mid-performance to play "Radio, Radio" during the live show, stunning the cast and crew with the sudden move. Despite his popularity as a singer and songwriter, Costello didn't return to Studio 8H for 12 years, leading many to incorrectly believe he was banned from the sketch comedy series.
The musician sets the record straight in Ladies & Gentleman…50 Years of SNL Music, the documentary co-directed by Questlove and Oz Rodriguez, explaining what really happened that night.
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Why did Elvis Costello play "Radio, Radio" on SNL?
Just three seasons into SNL’s epic 50-year run, Costello was set to appear as the Musical Guest with his band The Attractions on December 17, 1977.
“I had never seen SNL until I was on it,” Costello admitted in the documentary.
He and his band were expected to perform two of their hit songs, “Watching the Detectives” and “Less Than Zero,” which is exactly what happened during the dress rehearsal that night.
“In the dress rehearsal, we did a song that was on my first album. But I thought it sounded a little too slow,” Costello said in the documentary of “Less Than Zero." “It was a medium-tempo song, and I didn’t think it was enough.”
That’s when Costello said he realized “this show is live. We can do anything we want.”
When the live show began, Costello played several bars of “Less Than Zero” before stopping his band and saying to the camera, “I’m sorry ladies and gentleman, there’s no reason to do this song here.”
Costello then launched into “Radio, Radio.”
What was the reaction to Elvis Costello’s SNL performance?
The new song choice also came as a shock to SNL creator and showrunner Lorne Michaels.
“I was sitting with Dan Aykroyd on home base, just watching him. And I go, ‘Oh, I think we’re being hijacked,” Michaels recalled in the documentary.
Jane Curtin, an original cast member from the show's debut in 1975 until 1980, said the buzz was unmistakeable.
“When he stopped, the hubbub in the studio was like, ‘Oh my god. Oh my god, what’s happening?’ You could hear it,” she said.
For Costello, the initial surprise of the live pivot gave way to some myth-making in the aftermath.
“All of this stuff, it gets built up as legend in the retelling. But I didn’t come out there to give a political lecture,” he explained in Ladies & Gentlemen. “I came out there to sort of shake it up. As we finished the song, the initial reaction in the moment was, ‘I think we better get out of here.’"
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No, Elvis Costello was not banned from SNL
Despite the enduring myth around his performance, Costello was never banned from SNL.
“Somewhere in it, somebody said in anger, ‘You’ll never work in American television again.’ But the idea that I was banned from television was nonsense,” he said.
In fact, Costello returned to Saturday Night Live twice, first in 1989. He performed “Veronica” in a March 25, 1989 episode hosted by Mary Tyler Moore, and came back two years later to perform in the May 18, 1991 episode when George Wendt was the Host.
Costello also reenacted the moment for Saturday Night Live's 25th Anniversary special in 1999 during the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” performance, proving once and for all there were no lingering hard feelings.
