Jimmy Fallon and Chris Martin Sing David Bowie's "Life on Mars?"

"Well, you keep working on it," Tonight Show host playfully tells Coldplay frontman

By Rebecca Macatee Mar 22, 2016 7:15 PMTags

Jimmy Fallon gave Chris Martin some playful words of encouragement after the duo performed David Bowie's "Life on Mars?" together.

In a behind-the-scenes clip from The Tonight Show released Monday, Fallon sings in a style similar to the late musician while Martin accompanies him on the piano. It's mesmerizing, to say the least (see clip above) and seems like a fitting tribute to Bowie, who passed away Jan. 10 at age 69.

At the end of Fallon and Martin's performance, though, the late-night host facetiously patted the Coldplay frontman on the shoulder, saying, "Well, you keep working on it."

He's kidding, of course—Martin's top-notch. This collaboration with Fallon wasn't the first time he honored Bowie on late-night, either. Last month, Martin joined Late Late Show host James Corden for quite the session of Carpool Karaoke. The pair sang a variety of Coldplay hits and Martin performed his own rendition of Bowie's "Heroes."

Martin previously had hopes of collaborating with Bowie, but the stars just didn't quite align. "One time I sent him a song to ask him to sing on it," Martin recalled during a segment of the 2014 BBC Music Awards (as excerpted by NME). "He called me and said, 'It's not one of your best.' He's got very high standards and I appreciate that. It inspires the rest of us to keep our standards high."

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

Take a look back at Coldplay's Super Bowl X halftime performance in the video below.