Songfacts®:

• Jimmy Fallon is a popular late-night talk show host in America known for his goofiness and energy. This song doesn't seem to match - it's a languid tune with a short set of lyrics anchored by the phrase "Why walk when you can show up on time?" - no mention of Fallon.
  
  Understandably, the host wanted to know the meaning behind "Jimmy Fallon Big!" so when he had Michelle Zauner, who performs as Japanese Breakfast, on the show in 2022, he asked her.
  
  Before she was Japanese Breakfast, Zauner was in a punk band called Little Big League that released albums in 2013 and 2014. The song is about their bass player, Deven Craige, who left that group later in 2014 to join another band, Strand Of Oaks. He told Zauner, "I love this band. I wish we could continue on together, but this other band has invited me to play and we're going to be Jimmy Fallon big! I have to pursue my dream."
  
  She added, "My bandmate is like a brother, so it felt like I was losing a brother, in a way, and I felt all this shame that we weren't big enough to keep him in the band."
  
  The band ended up breaking up, with Zauner doing her thing as Japanese Breakfast. She says Craige ended up getting fired from Strand Of Oaks, but she welcomed him back as a musician with Japanese Breakfast.
  
  Oh, and Strand Of Oaks never did get Jimmy Fallon big, just Seth Meyers big. They performed on his show in 2014.
• Japanese Breakfast performed this song and "Be Sweet" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 15, 2021. Pandemic restrictions were still in place so they appeared remotely - Zauner explained the song on her second appearance on the show, which was in person.
• The song was released in 2017 on the second Japanese Breakfast album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet. The previous year, when the first Japanese Breakfast album, Psychopomp, was released, Michelle Zauner still had a full-time job working in sales and marketing. An appearance at South By Southwest got her signed with the label Dead Oceans, which is known for being patient with artist they believe in - Mitski and Cassandra Jenkins are also on the label.
  
  Those first two Japanese Breakfast albums didn't get much attention but the third, Jubilee in 2021, was Jimmy Fallon Big, thanks in part to the song "Be Sweet," which got a lot of airplay.