Perhaps the most standout song title on the 2017 Japanese Breakfast album Soft Sounds From Another Planet is “Jimmy Fallon Big!.” Now, four years later, Michelle Zauner has finally performed on Fallon’s Tonight Show, and naturally, she played that song.
In 2017, Zauner told NPR about the song, “I wrote this song about the bass player of Little Big League. He’d been offered a better touring gig and so he sat me down at my kitchen table and told me he had to quit the band because this other band were going to be ‘Jimmy Fallon big.’ At the time it felt like losing a brother, and there was this shame, feeling like I was never going to get there myself. Funny enough, he now plays bass in Japanese Breakfast! Now we just need to play Jimmy Fallon and the cycle will be complete!”
Fallon briefly recounted that story on the show and revealed that while Zauner was there to perform her recent Jubilee single “Be Sweet,” a rendition of “Jimmy Fallon Big!” would be filmed as a web-exclusive video.
Naturally, Zauner was excited about the whole thing. In response to a tweet from Fallon, she wrote, “AHHH! Thanks for having us! Feeling Jimmy Fallon Big af!!!” She also responded to the video of Fallon’s explanation about the song, “Wtf is going on [head exploding emojis].”
AHHH! Thanks for having us! Feeling Jimmy Fallon Big af!!!
— Japanese Breakfast (@Jbrekkie) March 15, 2021
Wtf is going on https://t.co/82ql73hIHu
— Japanese Breakfast (@Jbrekkie) March 16, 2021
Watch clips from Japanese Breakfast’s stop by The Tonight Show above.
Jubilee is out 6/4 via Dead Oceans. Pre-order it here.