Counting Crows’ 1996 hit “A Long December” is the kind of song that makes a whole lot of people sentimental. Last year, Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz sang a solo-piano version of “A Long December” on Kimmel to mark the first anniversary of the pandemic, and the Hold Steady led a huge singalong of “A Long December” at their Brooklyn comeback show. David Letterman has never come across as a sentimental man, but “A Long December” even gets to him.

Last night marked the 40th anniversary of the NBC talk-show franchise Late Night. David Letterman started Late Night, and he hosted the show for a little more than 11 years, until his famously acrimonious split with NBC. Letterman moved onto CBS and then onto massively bearded Netflix semi-retirement. The Late Night franchise went to Conan O’Brien, then to Jimmy Fallon, and then to current host Seth Meyers. On last night’s episode of the show, Meyers welcomed Letterman, and the two did a little reminiscing. Some of that reminiscing involved “A Long December.”

One of Letterman’s most lovable qualities is his enthusiasm for certain musical guests. Letterman always loved Counting Crows, and when he was on Late Night last night, Seth Meyers talked about finding a YouTube video of Counting Crows playing the song on Letterman in 1997. To celebrate Letterman, then, the now-dreadless Adam Duritz came on Late Night and once again song “A Long December” by himself at piano. (Letterman: “Ohhh man!”) Below, watch Duritz’s performance from last night and Counting Crows’ 1997 Letterman performance of the same song.

Check out our We’ve Got A File On You feature on Adam Duritz here.