There are few bands in the history of time that have built quite the following as The Beatles. They were incredibly popular in their prime and that love from the fans has never really dissipated in the decades since. Entire movies based on Beatles music have been written. Director Sam Mendes is working on four separate Beatles biopics. If this is how popular they are today, it’s not a shock that nearly a decade after the Beatles broke up, the producer of Saturday Night Live offered the band cash to reunite on the show.
It’s one of the more famous stories from the early days of Saturday Night Live. Producer Lorne Michaels appeared on camera to offer the Fab Four money to appear on the show together and play three songs. It was a publicity stunt. It was a joke. But as it turns out, it was very nearly successful.
How Lorne Michael Tried To Get The Beatles Back Together
It was April 26, 1976, and Saturday Night, not yet called Saturday Night Live, had been on the air for less than a year. Despite the Beatles having broken up as a band and the members largely moved on by 1969, there were constant rumors that they might reunite, and Michaels wanted to be sure that, if it happened, it happened on his show. Or at the very least, he wanted to make a funny joke about it. Michaels offered the band $3,000 for three songs, saying (via Yahoo)…
Here it is right here. A check made out to you, the Beatles, for $3,000. All you have to do is sing three Beatles songs,” he said. “‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ That’s $1,000 right there. You know the words – it’ll be easy.
This was equal parts serious and joke, of course. Even in 1976 $3,000 wasn’t a lot of money, especially to be split four ways. It was funny that the show would offer the most famous band in the world mere peanuts to do the thing they had certainly been offered a lot more to do. Of course, that’s not to say that if The Beatles wanted to be in on the joke, they wouldn’t oblige.
Obviously, the reuniting of The Beatles never happened. If it did, it likely would have been the best Saturday Night Live moments ever, and you would have heard about it. However, it turns out that one of the Beatles was watching, and two of them almost took Lorne Michaels up on his offer.
How John Lennon And Paul McCartney Reportedly Reacted To The Offer
While it’s been reported in the past that John Lennon and Paul McCartney were actually watching the show together when the offer was made, that’s not entirely accurate. Paul McCartney has said since that only John Lennon had been watching Saturday Night when Lorne Michaels made his $3,000 offer to the Beatles.
In an interview years later, McCartney said it was a week later when Paul was visiting his friend in New York, and the show came on, that John told Paul about the offer. McCartney says John suggested the two of them should just head over to the studio and take Lorne Michaels up on it and take half the cash. McCartney explained…
So John said, ‘It’s a hoot, you know what would be great, we can go down there now. It’s only around the corner, we should show up.’ For about five minutes, we were going. ‘We’ve got to do it.’ Then it was like, ‘Are you kidding, let’s stay in and watch the show, stay comfortable, if we go down there it’s gonna be crazy. It would be a great story,’ but we decided against it.
John Lennon lived in New York, not far from where Saturday Night Live was broadcast, so it would have been fairly easy for Lennon/McCartney to just hop over to the studio, in the middle of its live broadcast, and offer to play. The show would have almost certainly accommodated them.
To say it would have been a great story would be an understatement. The Beatles were one of the all-time great bands and fans were heartbroken when they ended. To see even two of them play together live would be a big moment for music, not to mention a massive coup for the young TV show. Of course, Saturday Night would not need The Beatles to become one of the best sketch comedy shows of all time
Unfortunately, the Beatles would never have their chance to reunite. With the death of John Lennon, any chance of that ever happening was gone, and while the Fab Four would find ways to make new music together thanks to old songs and new technology, the magic of them being on stage again is something we would never see.