On this date (May 9) in 1998, Jimmy Page appeared on Saturday Night Live with Sean "Puffy" Combs (aka Puff Daddy and/or P. Diddy) and a 40-piece orchestra to perform a little something called "Come with Me."
The song, which appeared on the Godzilla soundtrack that same year, was a hip-hop version of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" with new lyrics by Combs and Mark Curry. The track featured electric guitar by Page and Tom Morello, who also added bass and produced the track.
Although a lot of people have deleted the song (and the movie) from their memory banks, New York Yankees fans might remember that "Come with Me" played when Derek Jeter came up to the plate—and Italians might recognize it from a game show called Avanti un altro! The song often is played when French football club Olympique Marseille scores a goal.
As Public Enemy leader Chuck D said in 2012, “I like Jimmy Page and P. Diddy, but what they did to ‘Kashmir’ was a debacle. They are giants in their own way—and you can print this—but that was a f—ing travesty.”
Whatever you might think of the song (and I know what I think of it), note that it reached Number 2 in the UK and Number 4 in the US. And, hey, it got Page to appear on Saturday Night Live.
Speaking of which, since the Saturday Night Live version isn't available on YouTube at the moment (if you happen to track it down, please let us know in the comments section below), we've included two other versions for your viewing pleasure. First, there's a grand-scale live performance of the song by Combs and Page—from an event called NetAid, which took place at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on October 9, 1999. Below that, you'll find the song's official music video; Page appears in that too.
