Darlene Love – Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
As a native of Louisiana, I grew up listening to a steady diet of R&B. Many R&B singers got their start in church choirs singing gospel, and Darlene Love, a minister’s daughter, shares this heritage. Darlene’s group, the Blossoms, signed a recording contract with Philles Records, which had been formed by Phil Spector and Lester Sill (Phil and Les) in 1961.
Philles had also signed the Crystals, who recorded the label’s first top 100 Billboard hits, “There’s No Other (Like My Baby)” and “Uptown” in 1962. The Crystals began to sour on Spector after he had them record “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss),” which none in the group liked for obvious reasons. This may have contributed to the group’s slow response to Spector’s summons to Los Angeles for a recording session, although the logistics of traveling cross country from New York, the Crystals’ home base, was also a factor. At any rate, the Crystals’ delay provided an opening for the Blossoms, who were based in Los Angeles. Spector’s haste was motivated by a desire to record a song written by Gene Pitney before Vikki Carr could do the same on Liberty Records. With Darlene Love as the lead vocal, the Blossoms provided Philles Records with its first #1 Billboard hit, “He’s a Rebel” in 1962. However, Spector credited the song to the Crystals, as well as a second song, “He’s Sure the Boy I Love,” which reached #11 on Billboard. This put the Crystals in the awkward position of performing songs on tour that were not their recordings. While the Blossoms recorded several other successful songs, Spector’s use of them as “session singers” may have resulted in their biggest audiences, as they provided background vocals on the Ronette’s’ “Be My Baby,” Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life,” and the Crystal’s “Da Doo Ron Ron.”
While the Philles recordings featured great vocals, they were also characterized by Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound.” In the early 1960s, music was broadcast primarily over AM radio featuring mono or monaural transmission. Mono requires only one speaker for listening, as all the sound is routed through a single channel. This is distinguished from stereo, where sound is routed through two or more channels, therefore requiring multiple speakers for listening. FM radio, featuring stereo transmission, did not proliferate until the 1970s. Unsurprisingly, AM radio did not produce a very rich sound quality, at least until Phil Spector.
Spector’s Wall of Sound is distinguished by at least four characteristics. First, Spector was among the first to incorporate orchestral instruments into pop music. Second, he “layered” the music by recording different groups of instruments separately (for example, first guitars, then horns) and later integrating them together. Third, he recorded related types of instruments playing the same part (a frequently cited example is regular piano, electric piano, and harpsichord), so that each instrument’s distinctive sound quality was blurred, if not lost. Finally, the music from the studio was transmitted to speakers in a separate room, where microphones transmitted the music to the control room for recording, producing an echo effect. Finally, no description of the Wall of Sound would be complete without mentioning Spector’s house band, the Wrecking Crew.
The Wall of Sound produced a fuller sound for AM radio than anything else at the time. Perhaps the best example of the Wall of Sound was the 1964 recording by the Righteous Brothers, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” The background vocals on that recording were provided, you guessed it, by the Blossoms.
AM radio was dominated by singles, aka 45s, although Spector’s early productions include one album that has gained classic status. “A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector” was released in 1963 and features traditional holiday songs performed by the Ronettes, the Crystals, Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, and Darlene Love. It was the first recording of Love’s classic, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).”
I fell in love with Darlene Love performing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on David Letterman’s late night show, first on NBC and then on CBS. She started performing in 1986 and was on every Christmas show until his last in 2014. By the last show, the band was expanded to a near orchestra and wore white tuxedo jackets. She wore a full-length evening gown and finished the song standing on Paul Shaffer’s grand piano with the sax player. If you want to feel good this holiday season, enter “Darlene Love 2014 Letterman” in your computer’s search engine, and you won’t be disappointed.
Merry Christmas!