Paul McCartney has released two previously unseen performances from the Saturday Night Live Season 51 finale, with post credits renditions of Beatles classics ‘Help!’ and ‘Drive My Car’ now available online after they were omitted from the original broadcast.
by Paul Cashmere
Paul McCartney’s appearance on the Season 51 finale of Saturday Night Live has expanded beyond the televised broadcast, with two Beatles performances recorded after the live transmission ending now emerging online. The newly released renditions of ‘Help!’ and ‘Drive My Car’ were performed exclusively for the in-studio audience and were not included in NBC’s original telecast, but are now streaming on YouTube.
The additional songs extend what had already been a substantial night for McCartney, who returned to Saturday Night Live for his ninth appearance on the long-running US program. While television audiences saw McCartney perform new track ‘Days We Left Behind’, the Wings classic ‘Band On The Run’, and a surprise performance of ‘Coming Up’, audience members inside New York’s Studio 8H experienced a longer set that reached back to The Beatles catalogue.
The release of the post credits footage offers a broader picture of what unfolded during the finale and continues a recent trend of television performances finding a second life online after the live broadcast window has ended. For viewers who watched the original telecast, the newly available clips reveal a different side of the night, one that leaned less on McCartney’s current project and more on his Beatles legacy.
For the extra performances, McCartney was joined again by drummer Chad Smith and singer Ingrid Michaelson, both of whom had appeared earlier in the set. Actor and host Will Ferrell also took part in the performance of ‘Help!’, stepping into a comic role on cowbell.
The songs were recorded as part of the second live set of the day during the Season 51 finale broadcast. Ferrell had already shared screen time with McCartney during the opening monologue, where Chad Smith also appeared, while McCartney later featured in the sketch “What It Feels Like Talking To A Mechanic”.
The addition of Beatles material also shifted the balance of the evening. The original televised set largely centred on McCartney’s current musical cycle and his forthcoming album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, scheduled for release on 29 May. The after show performances instead drew from the catalogue that remains central to McCartney’s public identity more than six decades after Beatlemania first emerged.
That context matters because McCartney’s Saturday Night Live appearances have often become markers across different stages of his career. His first association with the show came on 17 May 1980 when the video for ‘Coming Up’ premiered during an episode hosted by Steve Martin. Later appearances became tied to memorable television moments, including his 1993 appearance opposite Chris Farley and his 2012 collaboration with surviving members of Nirvana.
The broadcast itself had already delivered a full circle moment. McCartney ended the televised portion with ‘Coming Up’, returning to the same song that first connected him to the series 46 years earlier. The emergence of ‘Help!’ and ‘Drive My Car’ adds another historical layer, reconnecting the appearance with music that predates his solo and Wings years.
There is also a broader industry dimension to the release strategy. Television events increasingly continue beyond the original airdate through digital extensions, with material that once existed only as audience memories now routinely surfacing online. For legacy artists, those additional clips can become as discussed as the broadcast itself, particularly when they involve songs with the cultural weight of Beatles recordings.
For McCartney, the attention now moves back toward The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, his first solo studio album since McCartney III in 2020. Noise11 previously reported that the record revisits memories of Liverpool and McCartney’s formative years before global success arrived. The Saturday Night Live appearance served as an introduction to that material, while the newly surfaced Beatles performances also reinforced the way different eras of McCartney’s career continue to intersect in public view.
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