Songfacts®:

• "Kokomo" is a very singable word, so much so that the Beach Boys had a #1 hit with a song of that title in 1988. But leave it to Japanese Breakfast to release a song called "Kokomo, IN" and never sing the word in the lyric.
  
  The Beach Boys song is about a fictional island, but there really is a Kokomo in Indiana, which is what the Japanese Breakfast song is named after. Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast is her solo project) chose the title because after she came up with the story in the song about young man who has to leave his hometown, she pictured Indiana as the setting. She thought someone she worked with at her label was from Bloomington, Indiana, so she called to tell him about the song but found out he's not from Bloomington but from Kokomo, so she changed the title.
• One of Michelle Zauner's many musical talents is playing guitar, which she learned without the musical theory. Later, she decided to take lessons and get into the theory, which led her into a journey of Beatles songs and chord changes. This is when she came up with "Kokomo, IN."
  
  "It really unlocked something in my compositional skill and that was really exciting and maybe part of the reason why I really love it," she told Stereogum. "It also took me, lyrically, to a place of this classic, heartfelt kind of song. For some reason, that to me was a young boy in a small town saying goodbye to his girlfriend who goes off to a study abroad program in Australia or something. That was what came to me."
• The protagonist in the song is a teenager with big feelings, the kind that seem so amplified at that age. Zauner explained: "It's so exhausting to feel that much when you're a teenager, but now that I'm in my 30s I miss feeling that way sometimes. I'm glad that I don't feel so much heartbreak and so in love all the f--king time, but there is something so sweet about the pure emotion you have when you're a teenager.
  
  I guess I was just imagining how I felt at that time and applying this sort of mature lens to it. I loved the idea of being 18 years old and loving someone so much but realizing that they have so much more to give to the world. One of the lines I really love on that song is 'show off to the world the parts I fell so hard for.' Wouldn't it be so nice when you were a teenager if someone said that to you?"
• The song is part of the third Japanese Breakfast album, Jubilee. This was a breakout for the group, earning a Best New Artist Grammy nomination (they lost to Olivia Rodrigo) and a spot on many critics' best-of lists. The most popular song on the album is "Be Sweet," which Zauner wrote with Jack Tatum of Wild Nothing in an effort to create a hit-worthy track.
• "Kokomo, IN" shows up in the 2022 episode of Donald Glover's TV series Atlanta in the episode "The Homeliest Little Horse."