For fifty years, Saturday Night Live (SNL) has been a stage for some of the most unforgettable musical performances in television history. From groundbreaking debuts to defining moments, the show has captured artists at their boldest and most iconic.

The SNL stage is always a crapshoot — some acts are better than others at making a nondescript space exciting, to say nothing of the show's eternally shaky sound mixes — which makes ranking each season's musical guests an adventure. But, because ...