From the files of 'Wow-some sites accept anything', i got this idea after finding out Simpsons were still on the air after something hit my internet radar about Katy Perry doing a Puppet-oriented version of the Simpsons or something. I wasn't really paying that much attention to it, but it did get me wondering how many other musical guests have lined up to be immortalized on the Simpsons...so this was my top 20.
It may surprise you to know that as of this writing, The Simpsons are still on the air. It has been on the air longer than most of the internet has been alive. To give you an idea of how long the Simpsons has been around, I’ll state some facts. It has lasted through seven Batman movies, two Persian Gulf Wars, four American Presidents, Monica Lewinsky, and the internet dot-com boom. It was around before cell phones, high speed internet, and Miley Cyrus was even considered as having an option to exist. It outlasted grunge, Robbie Robertson, CSI and the Spice Girls’ ‘Girl Power’ relevance. It made Conan O'Brian. That's how powerful it was.
The Simpsons, primarily due to it’s longevity, has become a cultural historical artifact of sorts, with shows related to current talking points of years past. Most of their current audience base will just as likely never heard of a guest star as have heard of them; that’s how old it’s become. It's like Saturday Night Live, only in cartoon form. It will never be as good as it once was says the previous generation.
Yet The Simpsons continues to comment on the changing social aspects in today’s world with it’s skewered adult-oriented humor through an assortment of great and talented writers that have had to work within the confines of the city of Springfield and it’s inhabitants and never-changing ages. South Park immortalized the influence The Simpsons have in adult-themed cartoons in an appropriately-titled show called ‘The Simpsons Already Did It’ in which a young, abused Butters aka Professor Chaos tries to wreck havoc on South Park through ideas that have already been on The Simpsons. His inability to do something the Simpsons haven’t results in him starting to see South Park as Springfield. It’s a surreal yet nice tribute to cartoondom’s most iconic show.
And to still be going at it for 24 years, you have to have a infinite amount of show ideas and early on Simpsons differentiated themselves by making no question that they were aiming for an adult audience. And how better to do that than to go after the biggest musical icons in the business and ask them to appear (as themselves) in cartoon form. From 50 Cent to Ringo Starr (both not on this list) it has grown as such that to be ‘Simpsonized’ is a bigger testament to your career than buying a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Here are my choices for the top 20 musical acts to achieve the distinction of having visited Springfield.
20. Metallica (Season 18 Episode 1- “The Mook, The Chef, The Wife And Her Homer”)
If Metallica decided to roll through Springfield anytime in it’s first 10 years, when Metallica was still somewhat relevant and not busy fighting the winds of change with their lawsuit over Napster they would have made it far higher on the list. As is, for this band to wait 18 years to become Springfield-worthy is a surprise; especially when you consider some of the other bands that hopped on the Simpsons bandwagon years earlier.
The episode itself involves Metallica meeting their biggest fan who turns out not to be Otto but Hans Moleman.
19. Plácido Domingo (S19 E2 “Homer of Seville”)
If you never heard of Plácido Domingo then you are hanging out on all the wrong street corners. He is/was (I don't know if he's still alive, I hang out on a wrong street corner) one of the biggest names (if not the biggest) in opera and has been for decades. He was one of the Three Tenors that tore up Concert Halls in the 90′s. His appearance was an acknowledgement of how much influence The Simpsons has had in all social classes, from the worst slums in the world to the richest concert halls. In the episode, Homer takes on an opera career (why not?) after it is discovered he can sing, albeit only laying on his back. Who else should he meet but the most popular and sexiest name in opera; Placido Domingo.
18. Paul and Lisa McCartney (S7 E5 – “Lisa The Vegetarian”)
Paul and his former wife Lisa weren’t much of a surprise in that Paul, George and Ringo of the Beatles had all already made an appearance by season 7. Matt Groening was a huge fan of the Beatles and he was able to fulfill 75% of his dream of meeting them. The couple’s appearance was of a serious note as they become spiritual mentors of a sort for Lisa, who makes a committed decision to become a vegetarian.
The power of Sir Paul really manifested itself here when it is discovered that the McCartneys condition for appearing was that Lisa would remain a vegetarian for the rest of the series. I don’t know about you but when you have an aging musician deciding your cartoon diet for the next 17 years and counting…well, that’s not too cool, Sir Paul, not cool at all.
17. Katy Perry’s Boobies – (S22 E8 -”The Fight Before Christmas”)
If you haven’t watched The Simpsons, say in the last 15 years, this is not the one to come back to unless you want a healthy dose of WTF happened? Breaking their more traditional formula by having story segments instead of a continual plot (Treehouse of Horrors excluded), this Christmas themed show – which ended with a Simpsons live-action Muppet style with a canned laugh track and corny jokes – was pretty bad.
Then Katy Perry shows up as Moe’s girlfriend in a latex Simpsons dress and sort of sings a Christmas carol, and it’s a bit much. Apparently producers of The Simpsons decided to invite Perry to milk the controversy she stirred up when it was decided she was too buxom for Sesame Street. See? Cultural relevance!
16. The Who – (S12 E2 – “A Tale Of Two Springfields”)
Springfield is torn in two as a wall divides the rich and poor (hi, post-war Germany reference!) and the only answer to reunite the city is through ROCK AND ROLLLLLL! The Who (which is what younger people were asking when it first aired) was another classic old-fogey rock and roll group which again emphasized the demographic the Simpsons were aimed at. The splitting of Springfield because of a new area code is defeated by the suggestion of speed dialing and the wall that Homer built is shattered by the opening refrain of CSI’s theme song.
15. Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Lenny Kravitz, And Brian Setzer – (S14 E2 “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation”)
Yet another ‘Call Grampa, his favourite show is on’ moment, this episode guest-starred a who’s who of big names in the late 80′s and early 90′s and got them together 1o years after they were pop-culture relevant (not saying they’re any less amazing, just less popular when this was broadcast).
Homer and a bunch of other Springfield citizens go to Rock Star Camp, where they learn about rock music from the above-named instructors. Finally, the wannabe-rockstars have a mock rock concert, with Homer as the lead guitarist and singer and summarily tears it up and gets ready to go live the rock and roll dream, only to be convinced not to when he is chased off the set by the assembled rock gods.
The songs include “Rip This Joint”, “Start Me Up”, “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)”, and “She’s So Cold”, all by the Rolling Stones; “Are You Gonna Go My Way” by Lenny Kravitz; “Pump It Up” by Elvis Costello; and “The Last DJ” by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers which make for a pretty decent playlist from a cartoon show.
4. BTO, AKA Bachman Turner Overdrive (S11 E13 – Saddlesore Galactica)
This may not be a big deal to most as BTO is relatively unheard of outside of Canada except for their biggest single ‘Takin’ Care of Business’. For me it is a personal favourite as in this episode, BTO are forced to play “just the good part” of “Takin’ Care of Business” over and over again at the state fair.
Years ago I attended a celebratory near-victory parade of sorts for a professional sports team that shall remain nameless after losing to the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup. BTO was performing and as the team entered the stadium they started playing Takin’ Care of Business. The Catch? They played ‘just the good part’ for over 20 minutes as the team went around and around the stadium in circles. I felt so bad for those guys in BTO who have done a lot of other great rock and roll but none as catchy as TCB. Welcome to your future, Psy. Fun fact; TCB was also the personal motto of Elvis Presley.
13. Tom Jones – (S4 E7 – “Marge Gets a Job”)
Jones is kidnapped by Waylon Smithers under orders from Mr. Burns in an attempt to woo Marge from Homer. It’s pretty straight forward; who else comes to top of mind when you want to loosen up a women’s panties? Sir Tom Jones of course. And when you have a change of heart and want to do something nice for a couple, who do you want? Sir Tom Jones, obviously.
Rumour was that Tom Jones was quite flattered to appear on the show and offered to perform for the cast and crew after he was done recording his lines, which included waving. Nice…and…slow…
When Bart creates a hoax that a little boy has fallen down a well, Sting and other Springfield celebrities team up for the charity single, “We’re Sending Our Love Down the Well”.
This did two things for Sting; showed he had a better sense of humor than Bruce Springsteen, who was the creators’ first choice to do a mock-up of his part in the biggest charity single to date; ‘We are The World’ and second, that he looked slightly better in The Simpsons world than in reality, so says Stewart Copeland.
11. George Harrison W/ David Crosby – (S5 E1- “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet”)
As mentioned before and quite often, Matt Groening was a big fan of the Beatles, as were many other of the show’s creators (because they were old). So with this in mind they decided to spoof the Beatles career by telling the story of Homer’s rise to fame as 1/4 of a Barbershop Quartet. With analogies to The Beatles throughout, it was topped off by a cameo appearance by George Harrison and is a smaller, less-Beatles-minded David Crosby who was also 1/4 of a pretty good band with ego issues.
10. Johnny Cash (S8 E9 – “El Viaje Misterioso De Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)”)
When you are deciding to write a show that involves themes of alcoholism, marriage, soul mates and a departure from the usual Simpsons animation who better to ask to guest star as a talking Space Coyote than Johnny Cash. As Homer trips out on Guatamalan Insanity Peppers he goes on a ‘mystical voyage’ complete with the mentoring and wisdom of the Space Coyote which helps Homer discover what we knew all along, Marge is his soul mate.
It’s often cited as one of the best Simpsons episodes of all time due to it’s multiple levels of animation, cultural acknowledgements and of course, the Man in Black.
9. Tito Puente – (S6 E25 And S7 E1 – “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” Parts 1 And 2)
Latin Jazz musician Tito Puente is hired as the new music teacher when Springfield Elementary strikes oil but when Mr. Burns manages to steal that oil away, it robs the school of Tito and makes him a prime suspect in the shooting. Tito Puente was another cultural odd-ball, more popular with Latino viewers who may have been annoyed that their biggest role model so far was the Bumblebee man.
While Chief Wiggum investigates the case and Tito’s alleged threat against Mr. Burns, it is discovered that Tito’s revenge was to set Mr. Burn’s soul afire with a slanderous mambo song. Tito was crossed off the suspect list and then the still alive list in 2000.
8. The Ramones – (S5 E4 -”Rosebud”)
The Ramones are brought in on Mr. Burns’ birthday to “soothe” his “jangled nerves.” They do one of their longer Ramones songs and once done they then order the old bastard to go to hell, which prods Mr. Burns to put a death hit on the Rolling Stones.
Featured in another stand-out show that emulated the story of Citizen Kane, the Ramones were thrilled to finally make an appearance on the show, being huge fans. With a rousing introduction by Waylon Smithers, these fair ‘minstrels’ did little to ease the nerves of Burns, lost without his teddy bear.
7. U2 – (S9 E22 – “Trash Of The Titans”)
Remember U2′s attempt at catching the wave of electronic pop and rave glitter that ended the millennium? That time when they decided to glam up their already iconic image by coming out of a giant lemon and trying to skewer to a younger audience? Neither do they. Unfortunately, for whatever reason this was the era that the band decided to immortalize forever by contacting the Simpsons producers and requesting a cameo to plug their Popmart ’round the world’ tour which wound up playing in Springfield.
As usual Bono does his political message thing, Homer does his stupid thing and Larry Mullen Jr says nothing. Adam Clayton and Mr. Burns make a big deal in the UK for saying ‘wanker’ which American audiences fail to appreciate as being a bit of curse word, like 'fanny'. In the show Homer interrupts the band’s performance and then gets beaten up as he attempts to become Springfield’s Sanitation Commissioner. The episode surprisingly won an Emmy because of the environmental message that it spread; Don’t put your garbage, or anyone else’s, down abandoned mine shafts or you will have to move the whole town five miles over.
6. Spinal Tap – (S3 E22 “The Otto Show”)
They don’t know what town they are in, the drummer explodes, the set ends in disaster. So, typical Tap. This was the capper to the insanity that was Season 3, in which The Simpsons really exploded into the mainstream and it involved one of the first meta-instances in cartoonism as Harry Shearer, as all should know is the voice of at least 10 characters on the show crossed into his other job.
He was also Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap so for this episode not only was he a regular cast member but he was also a guest star. It was a nice nod to the absurdity of Spinal Tap and introduced another generation to a yet-another band they never heard of and to those that did know of Spinal Tap, it was a good instance of The Simpson straddling that fine line between stupid and clever.
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers/Bette Midler/Barry White – (S4 E22 – “Krusty Gets Kancelled)
When Krusty is replaced by the unimpressive Gabbo, the Red Hot Chili Peppers strip down to their gym socks for Krusty’s comeback special which also included Bette Midler and Barry White, two people you may have to ask your parents about.
Only four years into their run, at a time when many critics were still trying to figure out exactly who the Simpsons was aimed at the show’s producers messed with them further by creating their first multi-musical act show with a cross-generational theme. On one hand there was the Red Hot Chili Peppers which appealed to the younger generation. Then there was Bette Midler who appealed to that generation’s parents and to top it off with a healthy dose of the sexy baritone of Barry White and critics still had no idea who the Simpsons was aimed at. They would repeat this musical juggling act with much more effectiveness in thanks to Lollapalooza.
This episode could be considered the pinnacle of The Simpsons success, its Jump the Shark moment, the mountaintop of mainstream. They were already preachy with the McCartneys on earlier in the season, then they got artsy with a show called 22 Short Films about Springfield.
George Bush makes an appearance, as does Sideshow Bob (but not in the same show). It was a nod to Perry Farrell’s Lollapalooza musical sideshow, an attempt at reaching out to the show’s all-ages demographic and it was an episode that will make us older folk sigh and say things like ‘remember when music mattered?’ and other stereotypical sh*t that reminds us of our parents.
The plot revolves around Homer’s confrontation with the Hullabalooza crowd and his side-stage act of catching cannonballs with his stomach. The cannonballs start taking their toll on his health but he feels ‘the show must go on’ despite the medical cautions. Eventually Homer does the right thing and quits being a sideshow freak. This is all played around an eclectic soundtrack of guest bands with Sonic Youth doing their rendition of the end theme over the credits.
Interesting notes from production; there is a brief shot of the musical group No Doubt in the background because Gwen Stefani’s brother Eric Stefani, was working as an animator at The Simpsons at the time and added them in. Also, Courtney Love was considered as a guest voice but a certain other band’s lead singer refused to participate if she was present (their name has something to do with breaking squashes).
3. Tony Bennett – (S2 E5 “Dancin’ Homer”)
The episode features a guest appearance by iconic singer Tony 'Not-Tom-Jones' Bennett, who was the first guest star to appear as himself on The Simpsons starting the trend that was to become commonplace for the next two decades.
Bennett appears in a scene in which the Simpson family meet him while taking a tour of Capital City after Homer gets a chance to take his team mascot ‘Dancin’ Homer’ character to the big leagues backing up the Capital City goofball.
While his appearance didn’t skewer to the younger set who had no idea who Tony Bennett was (a theme that continued in the years to come) it struck a chord with the producers who decided to start actively requesting personal favourites to guest-star, if nothing more than their own chance to meet their musical idols.
Tony Bennett also sang the song called “Capital City” much like “New York, New York” over the closing credits.
Tie: 1. Michael Jackson- (S3 E1 “Stark Raving Dad”) and Aerosmith (S3 E10 “Flaming Moe’s”)
When Season 3 hit, it hit hard. With two relatively successful seasons under their belts, the show was breaking ground in adult-oriented prime time cartoons and to cap it off, they reined in the two biggest acts of the day; Michael Jackson and Aerosmith.
Michael Jackson’s story of appearing on the Simpsons makes for an interesting legal read itself. Highlights include; a pseudonym for appearing (John Jay Smith), and the producers not being able to confirm that he was the guest star before or after airing, he would not actually sing (instead done by Jackson impersonator Kipp Lennon) although he was the one to suggest that he and Bart write a song together (Happy birthday Lisa). Jackson also penned the campy 90′s novelty tune ‘Do the Bartman’ uncredited.
With that quasi-controversy in the air, a couple months later the real hammer dropped and the first of what is an ongoing list of guest bands appeared in the form of already aging at that time Boston rockers, Aerosmith.
They were riding the high of being the Kings of the rock and roll pile after a 20 year absence with their 10th studio album Pump, which went to #5 in the US and #3 in the UK and like Jackson were big fans of the show and so they had their people contact the Simpsons people about making an appearance, which was also to become a large trend.
By getting the two biggest acts in music at the time and the resulting world-wide publicity it generated in what was only the third season of the show’s existence it cemented the age of a new tradition, where bands and people could cross-promote themselves in not only the real world but in an animated one as well. And while some other shows have attempted the feat none have been able to replicate it, for as Professor Mayhem discovered – ‘The Simpsons Already Did It’.
So that’s my 20 of the best musical acts to appear on The Simpsons. Feel free to add any omissions and reasons in the comments section below.
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