Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 - December 4, 1993) was an American musician, songwriter, composer, recording engineer, record producer, and film director.
When Frank Zappa hosted Saturday Night Live, he was unpopular with the cast and crew through both rehearsals and taping of the episode, possibly because their lax views on drug and alcohol consumption did not mesh with his rigid anti-drug stance. This was highlighted in the sketch "Night on Freak Mountain", which also featured Paul Shaffer as Don Kirshner. Throughout the episode, he regularly mugged for the camera and frequently noted to the audience that he was reading from cue cards. Following the episode, he was banned from Saturday Night Live and would not appear on the program again before his death in 1993.
Zappa and his band performed three songs that had not been released at that point: "Dancin' Fool" from the 1979's Sheik Yerbout, "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" from 1981's You Are What You Is, and the instrumental "Rollo", which had been cut from 1973's Apostrophe (') and would remain unreleased until 2006's Imaginary Diseases.
Dana Carvey has also impersonated Frank Zappa on the March 24, 1990 and May 12, 1990 episodes.