Ashlee Simpson "Pieces of Me"

What we know about Ashlee Simpson:

• Younger sister of Jessica Simpson
• Had her own MTV series which was a spin-off from Nick and Jessica
• Married and later divorced Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy
• Danced a hoedown on Saturday Night Live when prerecorded vocals from "Pieces of You" played while she attempted to sing a different song -- the band transitioned back to "Pieces of You" when she exited the stage and SNL went to a commercial break

Stevie Wonder "Go Home"

Speaking of Stevie Wonder, he managed to top both the Dance and Adult Contemporary Charts with "Go Home". His mid-tempo synth-laden tune took its sweet time to become a hit. Originally recorded in 1984, Stevie actually performed the song on Saturday Day Night Live a year prior.  It was released in 1985 and turned into a #1 song in 1986.

George Michael - "One More Try"

The death march known as 2016 continued its relentless attack on musicians by taking George Michael.   Michael died over the Christmas holiday.  He was 53.  During music class in fourth grade was when I first was introduced to Michael after overhearing a couple girls in my class talking about how hot he was.  I mistakenly thought these girls were speaking of George Michael --the host of "George Michel's Sports Machine".  The next time I remember learning about George Michael (the singer) was on Saturday Night Live when Dana Carvey parodied him during an episode of weekend update where he kept telling host Dennis Miller to "look at my butt!".  Michael got his start as a member of the British duo Wham! and later launched an era of dominance as a solo artist.  The ballad, "One More Try", hit #1 in 1988--the song was one of six singles released from Michael's debut solo album, Faith.  In fact, five of the album's six singles became hits while the album itself sold over 25 million copies.  Rest easy, George.

Barbara Streisand & Barry Gibb - "What Kind of Fool"

You can almost hear Jimmy Fallon's impersonation of Barry Gibb in "What Kind of Fool"--a #1 duet from 1981.

Little River Band - "Take It Easy on Me"

The kids today like to abbreviate things: SNL instead of Saturday Night Live, totes instead of totally, and so forth (or et cetera as they used to say).  So save yourself the extra half second and say LRB instead of Little River Band.  Now go out and do something magical with that half second.  K?

Barbara Streisand & Neil Diamond - "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"

The morning show I produced back in 2003 had the opportunity to interview Neil Diamond.  While we all knew of Neil Diamond, we really didn't know what to do with the interview.  The host of the show had an idea: the female co-host would do the interview solo but, after the interview, the host would ask Neil a series of questions that Neil would "ignore".  The gist of the bit would be that we received word before the interview that Neil Diamond didn't like the host and would refuse to answer any questions from him.  We taped the interview as planned and played it back.  What followed was an onslaught of Neil Diamond fans who emailed the station complaining about what we had done.  They claimed (falsely) that the interview was completely fabricated because Neil talked about the Cubs instead of the Red Sox (it was true--Neil did talk about the Cubs).  I can only imagine what these same fans did when Saturday Night Live did that Neil Diamond Behind The Music parody.

Aaron Neville - "Don't Take Away My Heaven"

Horatio Sanz could've busted out "Don't Take Away My Heaven" while impersonating Aaron Neville on Saturday Night Live, but instead chose one of Neville's bigger hits.  One of Aaron Neville's final songs to chart on the Adult Contemporary charts was a slightly remixed version of "Don't Take Away My Heaven" in 1993.