Watch Paul McCartney perform three hit songs on ‘Saturday Night Live’
Paul McCartney appeared as the musical guest on the season finale of the 51st iteration of Saturday Night Live, sending off the show with ‘Days We Left Behind’, ‘Band on the Run’, and a surprising third encore as the credits rolled.
Only 15 months ago, the Beatles legend had provided the show with a memorable Abbey Road medley to see out the 50th anniversary special.
On May 17th, he was back with a similar shade of nostalgia in his song, ‘Days We Left Behind’, from The Boys of Dungeon Lane, his 18th solo album and his first since the 2020 LP McCartney III.
His second performance, introduced once again by the host of the evening, Will Ferrell, was the much earlier track ‘Band on the Run’, the Grammy-winning title song of the 1973 Wings album. Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers joined him on the drums.
The Saturday Night Live set is familiar with this track, as McCartney previously performed a high-voltage rendition of the track on a 2010 episode of the show.
Though most musical guests are only granted two songs, this was a special season finale, and McCartney is a special artist: as the credits rolled, the Liverpudlian quickly rejoined the band for a performance of ‘Coming Up’ from his 1980 project, McCartney II.
The 83-year-old lent a hand elsewhere in the episode, too: He was featured in Ferrell’s opening monologue, as the “cute one” the Elf star called out when taking questions from the audience.
By now, Saturday Night Live is second nature to the icon: he performed as a musical guest in 1980, alongside Linda McCartney, as well as in 1993, 2010, and 2012, along with cameos in 2006, 2013, 2015, and on SNL50 in 2025.
McCartney’s next album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, will arrive on May 29th. Upon the announcement of the new collection of songs, McCartney explained, “It’s a lot of memories of Liverpool for me, and that involves a little in the middle about John, Forthlin Road, a street I used to live in, this is where the title of the album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, came from.”
Watch footage from the three performances below.
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