Bon Iver to Make 'Saturday Night Live' Debut

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver performs at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago.

Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images

Bon Iver will make their debut appearance on Saturday Night Live with the February 4th episode of the long-running sketch comedy show, which will be hosted by actor Channing Tatum. The band, led by songwriter Justin Vernon, will perform selections from their highly acclaimed second album, Bon Iver, as a nine-piece ensemble.

Bon Iver's appearance on SNL will come just over a week before the Grammy Awards, where the indie act is up for four major awards including Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. The group is also set to appear high on the bill at the Coachella festival in April.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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