David Letterman’s single favourite song of all time:

Posted On December 13, 2025December 13, 2025

David Letterman was always known for having legions of great acts on his show. Despite his reputation as one of the biggest names in late night, his indelible wit was matched by the amount of starstudded people that came across his show. Although his shows would often diverge from the typical late-night antics whenever any act took to the stage, Letterman tended to have a soft spot for one of the kings of post-grunge.

Coming out of the 1990s, Letterman was the perfect conduit for grunge fans coming up with bands like Nirvana. When inducting Pearl Jam into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Letterman talked about how visceral the sound of the music was, recalling, “It had an anger to it. It appealed to 20-something people who felt displaced and unemployed. I was almost 50, and even I was pissed off.”

Despite Eddie Vedder’s love for the late-night host, Letterman wouldn’t find his favourite song until Foo Fighters began making a name for themselves. Starting as a side project for former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, the band quickly blossomed into one of the biggest acts in rock with their sophomore release, The Colour and the Shape, featuring the band’s most celebrated singles like ‘Monkey Wrench’ and ‘My Hero’.

Toward the end of the record, though, Grohl had come up with one of the most heartfelt songs of his career. Talking about the intangible feeling of love, ‘Everlong’ would become the band’s signature tune, quickly being adopted as their concert closer during shows as the fans scream their hearts out with the band.

‘Everlong’ showcases Grohl’s fine ability to write an epic tune, with a lot of dynamics, musically speaking, that tie nicely into the lyrical story of the song. The song reached number three on the Billboard charts. Grohl knocked the song around for a few months before he was able to finish it. Due to Grohl going through a divorce at the time, he had to crash on the floor of a friends place, around this time, he was finally able to finish the song.

Grohl actually thought he had stolen the song. Grohl said: “It just felt so off the cuff and unofficial that I considered it to be a demo. So then we went and we re-recorded it and that’s the song that you hear on the radio today.

While Letterman had admired the song for a long time, it wasn’t until the 2000s that he adopted it as one of his favourites. Though Foo Fighters had always been welcome on Letterman’s stage, life took a turn for the worse when Letterman had to undergo heart surgery. Even though Letterman was in a tough spot healthwise, he credited the song with bringing him back from the edge.

It’s easy to see what Letterman saw in the song as well. For all of the lovelorn lyrics that Grohl put into the final product, it’s easy to imagine the song being about how many years we have left on Earth. As one’s life goes by, there always comes a point where we ask ourselves the same questions that Grohl poses in the song, wondering if everything could ever feel as real as it is right now.

As soon as Letterman returned to the late-night stage, he had one special request upon his return: for his favourite band to come back to play his favourite song. Happily obliging, Grohl and co. stormed the stage that night, giving Letterman a warm welcome back while on the road to recovery.

That would be far from the last time Foo Fighters would take the Letterman stage. Throughout the rest of Letterman’s run as host, Grohl would return with the rest of the band on numerous occasions, either for the odd show or promoting their latest record, including dressing up in Beatles attire when promoting the song ‘Bridge Burning’ from the album Wasting Light.

As Letterman saw out his time on television, Grohl was right beside him, playing the famed song that helped bring the host back from the brink. While Letterman may have had numerous fans of his work over the years, the impact of ‘Everlong’ has left a staple on his life greater than any other song.

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