Why did Elvis Costello sing "Radio Radio" on Saturday Night Live rathe!
Question:
Why did Elvis Costello sing "Radio Radio" on Saturday Night Live rather than the other song?
Just wondering if he was sticking it to the man.
Answers:
Yep, exactly that.
His label, Columbia Records, wanted an established song performed on SNL, to raise interest in the band prior to the American release of 'My Aim Is True' and 'This Year's Model'. But Elvis had already planned on 'Radio Radio', so it was a battle of wills - guess who won : )
(Kind of - he got banned from SNL for 12 years.)
Costello said later that the inspiration for the last-minute song change came from a similar episode years earlier, concerning Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix was on the BBC television show hosted by pop-star Lulu, and was supposed to play his hit, "Hey Joe." Hendrix started the song, stopped, said, "We’d like to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to the Cream regardless of what kind of group they might be. I’d like to dedicate this to Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce." and then launched into a feedback-laden version of "Sunshine of Your Love" by the group Cream, which had just announced its break-up.
The song ran far longer (and louder) than the show's producers had in mind, Hendrix said after a bit, "We’re being pulled off the air,” and the BBC pulled the plug (literally) on Hendrix's performance.
In a bizarre and comic twist, on SNL's 25th anniversary show in 2000, Costello burst in on Beastie Boys—sabotaging their performance of "Sabotage"— and they performed Radio Radio together.
The SNL performance was on YouTube a while back, try to see it if you haven't. They pumped a lot of extra energy (venom?) into it.