Awesome / The Late Show with David Letterman

• Letterman is often given credit for helping break alternative rock music to the mainstream American public during the 1980's, and many of his most awesome moments involve this genre of music and its related subgenres.
  • The network television debut of R.E.M. in 1983. They perform their college radio smash "Radio Free Europe", have a very awkward interview with Letterman in which Michael Stipe sits on the drum riser out of sight and Mike Mills does all the talking, and a second performance - the live debut of the then-unnamed "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)".
  • In 1989, the reclusive British band XTC gave an extremely rare live performance - their first of any sort in 7 years - for Letterman's show, performing "King for a Day". It's a song written and sung by Colin Moulding, which allows the band's other lead singer, Reclusive Artist Andy Partidge, to slip into the background a bit more.
  • Every time that Crowded House released an album during their initial run, Letterman always had them on as guests. Their success in Canada and the US is at least partly due to his influence.
  • In 2000, on his first show back after heart surgery his favorite band, Foo Fighters, rescheduled a whole leg of their tour to perform Letterman's favorite song, "Everlong".
  • On a episode in 2002, Letterman's close friend and frequent musical guest Warren Zevon was the only guest. It was his final public appearance before dying of mesothelioma, which he had been diagnosed with a few months before appearing on the show and would die from in under a year. He gave a lengthy interview with Letterman before giving his final public performance, of his 1978 song "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner".
  • A barnburner of a performance of "House of Jealous Lovers" by dance punk band The Rapture in 2003, featuring keyboardist Gabriel Andruzzi rocking the shit out of a cowbell.
  • Another frequent Letterman guest, Phish, performed a multi-song set on the Ed Sullivan Theater's marquee in 2004. Only one song, "Scents & Subtle Sounds", was taped explicitly for the show, but in true Phish fashion they just kept going after that. The entire 24 minute set can be viewed here. It was the band's last television performance before their split in 2004. When they reunited in 2009, they only stopped by Letterman once more before he retired.
  • Letterman was so impressed by TV on the Radio's performance of "Wolf Like Me" that they came back every time they had a new album, a regular booking that is usually only reserved for artists that Letterman personally likes. Most bands performed on Letterman once or twice. TV on the Radio performed five times.
  • Letterman became an instant fan of soul-influenced British indie band The Heavy when they played his show in 2010. He loved their performance of "How You Like Me Now" so much that he asked them perform the song again immediately afterwards, the first time Letterman had ever asked an artist to perform an encore. When they came back in 2012 to perform their song "What Makes A Good Man" he again asked them to perform another song immediately afterwards (it was, of course, "How You Like Me Now").
  • In 2014, he gave Future Islands a much-needed Colbert Bump. Their energetic performance of “Seasons (Waiting on You)” helped make them a household name to indie kids everywhere. They went from being a little-known group to playing bigger venues and multiple festivals all because of a performance that will go down in the show’s history as one of the greatest. Watch it here.
• Steve Winwood promoted his 1986 Back In The High Life tour with a stop on Late Night, playing “Higher Love” with Paul and the band. Paul warned Dave that it was a hard song to learn, and there are some noticeable flubs, even with Paul and bassist Will Lee glued to the sheet music. They make up for it with a rendition of “Gimme Some Lovin’” which absolutely brings the house down.
• More musically mainstream, but his final NBC show closed with Bruce Springsteen (who Letterman said was the one musical guest he'd always wanted but could never get) doing a knockout version of "Glory Days". He even jumped onto Paul Shaffer's keyboard at one point.
• His first show after the 9/11 attacks. No monologue, no music, just him sitting at the desk trying to find some kind of explanation or reason for the tragedy. He did similarly excellent work after Hurricane Sandy and the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012.
• Letterman's 2009 on-air confession of having had an affair with one of his staffers and detailing the bizarre extortion plot against him because of it was an oddly triumphant moment, because of the deft way he handled it, even finding some legitimate laughs in the situation. It basically set the gold standard for how public figures ought to deal with scandals: be honest, upfront and genuinely contrite, but be yourself.
• The final montage that played at the end of Letterman's last show, backed by the Foo Fighters' "Everlong". Probably the greatest talk show montage EVER!!!
• The last Top Ten List, "Top Ten Things I've Always Wanted to Say To David Letterman", read by these celebrities: Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey and Bill Murray as you can see here.
• Johnny Carson's final TV appearance, in 1994. He came out to a 90-second standing ovation, sat in Letterman's chair for a few seconds, then left without saying a word. By not doing the Top Ten bit he was planning to do, relinquishing Letterman's chair was both: A) An acknowledgement that Letterman was Carson's preferred choice as his successor on The Tonight Show (over Leno, whose show Carson never appeared on), and B) He still went out on top because if the bit sucked, it would've left a bad last impression. It was masterfully executed.
  • The setup for the appearance was noteworthy as well. In the handful of prior episodes, Dave would introduce a celebrity guest to bring out the Top Ten List; in each case, it would be Calvert DeForest (complete with onscreen graphic of the celebrity's name). On this particular episode, Dave did the same and announced Johnny Carson as bringing out the list, which brought out DeForest again. However, upon discovering he had been handed the wrong notecard for the list, Dave called "Johnny" back out to bring him the real list...at which point the REAL Johnny Carson walked out to a huge ovation from the surprised audience.
• In 1998, Letterman had Norm Macdonald on the show following the Executive Meddling by NBC that resulted in Macdonald being let go from his role as the Weekend Update anchor on Saturday Night Live. While Macdonald was being civil about the whole thing, Letterman wasted no time in calling NBC's West Coast Executive Don Ohlmeyer an idiot who has no business making creative decisions for TV shows.
  Letterman: [Ohlmeyer]'s a man who could not create gas after a bean dinner!