A live band is a late-night show staple, so it was natural for Lorne Michaels to want a band when he was putting SNL together back in 1974. But unlike other late-night shows where the band members wore tuxedoes and played music that could fit nicely into a society function, this band was to be different. This is why Lorne recruited his friend and fellow Canadian Howard Shore to assemble a group of top-notch musicians who would play music with a decidedly harder edge.

Shore started with Paul Shaffer on piano, another Canadian transplant that would later go on to fame as Dave Letterman’s sidekick, and hired Cheryl Hardwick on organ. Cheryl would remain with the SNL band for 20 years. The talented Shaffer had a lot to do with the sound of the early SNL band, an influence that has spilled over to today. He wrote music for the group and even appeared in a number of sketches. For that matter, Shore could be seen from time-to-time getting his own share of the limelight. Who could forget Howard Shore and His All Nurse Band.

With the backbone of Shaffer and Hardwick in place, Shore added a gutsy horn and rhythm section, ending up with a driving blues band that could get as down and dirty as the best of them. Shore even helped Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi recruit the top-notch musicians who became the backing band for The Blues Brothers.

In 1980, Tom Malone took over the band for five years. Shore returned in 1985 and assembled a brand new crew, though he left two years later to focus on his film-scoring career. Today, Howard Shore is one of the most active composers in the film business. In 2004, he won an Academy Award for his work as the composer for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. He is also well known for his work on dozens of other films, including those by director David Cronenberg.

In 1987, G. E. Smith took over as musical director, keeping that position for 8 years until the band turned over again in 1995 when Lenny Pickett replaced G. E. Smith as the band's leader and Cheryl Hardwick moved on to other things.

Even though the SNL band has gone though many changes over the years, one thing has always remained the same: the SNL band has always been one of the top ensembles working in television, producing gutsy, bluesy, original music that perfectly matches the gutsy, bluesy, original comedy taking place on stage.