I must admit, a true “notch on one’s belt” occurs when you’re actually been through the experience of playing on the historic television show, “Saturday Night Live”! I did it, back in 1978, when I was touring with Art Garfunkel, and he was the host for that week’s show. What an experience!
The madness that leads up to the final crescendo of the “live” show on Saturday begins on the Wednesday of that week, and just never lets up until the show is finally done! To give you an idea, I happened to arrive early on that Wednesday, and while sitting in my dressing room, just quietly playing the piano, the door suddenly swings open, and it’s none other than Dan Akyroyd, holding a microphone and a small tape recorder, saying “I’m going to record sounds in the girls bathroom!” It was then I knew I was in for some kind of crazy ride!
The show back then had most of the original cast members, and was 90 minutes long, as opposed to today’s 60 minutes, so the show had much more time for music as well as having longer skits. For example, I played 4 songs with Garfunkel, who was hosting, yet we STILL had a musical guest, Steven Bishop, who also got to do 2 songs on the show! That’s a lot of music ...
Later on, the great Andy Kaufman arrived, who was about to read “The Great Gatsby” to the audience, and I got to watch Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Dan Akyroyd, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman and of course, John Belushi in action! Belushi was a wildman backstage, and on the night of the final run-through and live broadcast show, we decided to put on funny Blues outfits and warm up the crowd with “Rocket 88”, which was a song on my first album that I had to teach Belushi the words to just prior to hitting the stage! This was of course, the birth of “The Blues Brothers”, but they had not even named it that yet, nor had they ever played it on a broadcast. This was just to warm up the crowd before the real show began!
And even right up to the last moment, routines kept getting changed or eliminated, based on audience reaction! We actually did the show 3 times on Saturday…..the final run-through, the dress rehearsal (in front of an audience), and then the final “real” live show! I think the idea was to keep you in such constant motion that by the time the real show happened, you almost didn’t know where you were anymore! It certainly worked……Yes, those were great memories made that week, and something I’l never ever forget!