 The song 's widespread success has made it indispensable to the band 's live set @-@ lists . Unlike several of the Chili Peppers ' other songs , " Under the Bridge " is not interpreted in a different manner than what is on the record — aside from being played acoustically the track is performed the same as it appears on Blood Sugar Sex Magik . Kiedis is , however , notorious for being incapable of achieving several high notes in live performances ; the vocalist has noted that he sometimes forgets or rearranges song lyrics in the verses . Therefore , the song has sometimes suffered from his limitations as a singer . After being released as a single in March 1992 , the song would be included in virtually all concerts ; Frusciante , however , began to resent the song 's popularity and would play convoluted intros , purposefully throwing Kiedis off . An example of this was during a televised performance on the highly rated program Saturday Night Live on February 22 , 1992 . Kiedis said it " felt like I was getting stabbed in the back and hung out to dry in front of all of America while [ Frusciante ] was off in a corner in the shadow , playing some dissonant out @-@ of @-@ tune experiment . " The guitarist used a distortion pedal for the ending verse and screamed incomprehensibly into the microphone when providing backup vocals , neither of which were originally planned or typical of live performances . Nevertheless , sales of Blood Sugar Sex Magik skyrocketed following the show . 
