Video of the Day 2: St. Vincent Pays Homage to Elvis Costello on “Conan”

In his first U.S. television performance on “Saturday Night Live” in 1977, Elvis Costello famously played a few bars of “Less Than Zero” before stopping the Attractions and launching into the far more domestically topical “Radio, Radio.” This time out, Annie Clark begins with “Radio, Radio” before stopping down, mimicking Elvis’ explanation and going forward with “Cheerleader.”

A few people in the audience got the joke, but not really enough: this was a fairly famous incident in which Costello felt that a point needed to be made while the powers that be (yes, they still “be”) thought otherwise.

In fact, it is so well known that, on an “SNL” anniversary special, Beastie Boys and a special guest staged their own tribute/allusion to the performance.