Feist On "Letterman" With an Indie-Rock All-Star Choir: The Backstage Report and Photos From Rehearsals

Last night Canadian singer-songwriter Feist and a choir of indie-rock all-stars hit a Winnebago in midtown Manhattan to rehearse for their performance of "1 2 3 4" on Late Show With David Letterman. For photos of the crew -- which included members of Broken Social Scene, Grizzly Bear, New Pornographers, the National, Mates of State and Nicole Atkins & the Sea -- singing The Reminder track onstage, hanging with Paul Shaffer and learning how to clap together, click here.

Rock Daily asked Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste (our Coachella correspondent) for a report from the set, and he told us it was "super-fun," even if nobody got to chat with guest Susan Sarandon ("Visual contact was made," he jokes). And while the last time Grizzly backed Feist on television (for a performance on Conan O'Brien's show) the choir was outfitted in baby blue, Droste says he prefers the white robes they sported last night. "The sparkle armbands I could go either way on 'cause they kind of itched a little bit. Last time there was a wardrobe person who had to bring powder blue for everybody 'cause no one has powder-blue pants. Of course," he adds, "we're so far away, honestly it doesn't matter. We could have been wearing no pants."

Working with Feist was wonderful because "She's a charmer," he says, "Everyone wants to please a charmer." And despite his criticsm of the refreshments as "a little mayonnaise-y for my taste," he hopes his band gets invited back to Letterman's freezing-cold studio real soon: "Hopefully my comment about the sandwiches won't deter them. My bandmates were eating the sandwiches and they were loving it. It's just my own thing. It's just a mayonnaise preference."

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

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