Lady Gaga To Appear On 'The Simpsons' (And Classic Musician Appearances)

Lady Gaga finished recording her voice over for an upcoming episode of The Simpsons earlier this week. The episode, “Lisa Goes Gaga,” will air in Spring 2012. Gaga comes to Springfield to boost the collective morale after hearing its residents had a notably low self-image. She tries to cheer up a lethargic Lisa Simpson and even plants a smooch on Marge Simpson. “I play a little bit of a slut,” Gaga said in an article first reported by Entertainment Weekly. “The apple doesn't fall far from my artistic tree.”

While Gaga is no stranger to the recording studio, working with The Simpsons was a bit different. “I make music, but I don't do voice-overs every day of the week, and
their characters are so awesomely convincing and sincere and wild and
funny, I had to remind myself constantly of the sincerity of the humor,”
Gaga said of her appearance on the show. “That's what I was trying to
focus on, not putting on a character too much and really being as
sincere as I could with the lines.”

While waiting for the episode to air, we've compiled several awesome and classic musician cameos on The Simpsons over the years.
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Homerpalooza

In a tribute to the music of the disaffected '90s youth, the finale of season seven, “Homerpalooza,” brought the Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Cypress Hill and Peter Frampton to Springfield. Homer's realizes that his favorite music is no longer considered cool. To stay with the times, he takes the kids to the Hullabalooza music festival. There, he discovers his ability to take projectiles to the gut and becomes a circus freak performer at the fest.

Poor Frampton can't catch a break in the episode. “Oh, this is just great. First Homer Simpson wrecks my pig, then Cypress
Hill steals my orchestra, and now Sonic Youth's in my cooler,” he laments. “Get out of
there!”

Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Hole and Pearl Jam all declined to be on the episode.

Michael Jackson

The King of Pop guest stared on the season premier of the third season in “Stark Raving Dad.” Homer is admitted to a mental institution where he meets Leon Kompowsky (Jackson), a man who thinks he's Michael Jackson. The episode ends with Kompowsky singing the now-classic Simpsons song, “Lisa, it's your birthday.” Interestingly, Jackson did not sing the song. Kipp Lennon was brought in to sing as Kompowsky.

The Ramones

Mr. Burns doesn't appreciate what many punk fans would kill (say the Rolling Stones?) to have: the Ramones playing at his birthday party. In true punk form, the Ramones don't seem to appreciate the gig either in this season five Citizen Kane spoof episode, “Rosebud.”

The Beatles

Three out of four Beatles have guest starred on the show, and there have been several Fab Four references as well. The whole “Homer's Barbershop Quartet” episode is a loose chronicle of Beatles history. Homer joins the Be Sharps who rise to fame, just to be broken up over Barney's new artistic girlfriend, and reconcile over their last concert held on a rooftop. George Harrison, who guest stars, rolls down the window of his limo as it drives by, looks up at the rooftop performance and shrugs, “It's been done.”

Above is a cameo of Paul and Linda McCartney in “Lisa the Vegetarian.” They form an affinity with Lisa who's been feeling put out after her family doesn't support her vegetarianism. The scene is ripe with cheesy Beatles references ranging from the “Paul is dead” phenomenon to their Maharishi days.

Ringo Starr was the first Beatle to guest star on the series in the season two episode “Brush with Greatness.” Marge had a high school crush on Starr and painted several likenesses of him in high school. She even sent one to him for “an honest opinion.”

Johnny Cash





We're shamelessly going to throw objectivity out of the window for this one and name Johnny Cash as the best musician–nay celebrity–appearance in The Simpsons history. Homer trips on Guatamalan insanity peppers at the annual chili cook off. He wanders off into the desert where he stumbles across his spirit guide, a coyote voiced by The Man in Black. He encourages Homer to go on a spiritual quest to find his soul mate which may or may not be his wife. Check the video here. The Cash Man appears at 2:44 but no need to skip ahead. This whole scene is pretty damn cool.

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