Friday, December 21, 2012

DARLENE LOVE ALERT: TONIGHT!

Tonight's the night that Darlene Love will be on Letterman, for the 26th consecutive year, singing "Christmas, (Baby Please Come Home)." Think about that, for twenty six years she's appeared on Letterman's last show before Christmas, through network changes, time slot changes, and everything else. There's a number of reasons why it's special. First and foremost is that is the closest you or I will ever be to seeing a Phil Spector produced classic, done up live in all it's glory. They pull out all the stops; strings, brass section, choir, bells, the whole nine yards. And, to these semi-trained ears, it sounds like they're using Spector's original charts as well. As you can imagine, after all those years, it's pretty well rehearsed. (I went to the trouble of playing videos of a couple different years performances simultaneously, and they synched up almost perfectly. They have it down.) In short, the whole thing is three and a half minutes of cynicism busting pop perfection.

Love had a string of Spector produced hits in the sixties, some with the Blossoms, and some without lead vocal credit (the Crystals "He's A Rebel" and "He's Sure the Boy I Love." and Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"). She's also sang backing vocals for Sam Cooke, the Beach Boys, Dionne Warwick, Elvis, Sonny & Cher, Tom Jones, among many others. She is royalty.


Love, with the Blossoms, 1965

Though I obviously haven't seen tonight's performance, I can tell you exactly what will go down. Letterman will introduce her, and then they'll cut to the stage. Every year it's a different set, but Love usually is off camera for the intro. (During the intro, they may cut to the sleigh bell guy, who figures big in the overall sound.) She'll come on, with a different look than previous years, and undoubtedly a different hairstyle. Because every years appearance is Darlene Love's night to shine, it's like her own pop music prom, and every year she looks happy, healthy, and young for her age (74). She'll go through the first few verses and choruses, and the song will continually build. When the song hits the sax solo, that sax player will appear, usually in cornball fashion (one year he flew in, one year he was pulled in on a sleigh by elf-ish vixens, and another year through a cloud of smoke). As corny as the sax player's arrival usually is, it worth noting that you're pulled in so much at that point, that it doesn't derail the performance (and that's something to say). Towards the end of the song, fake snow will begin falling. They'll pan the audience. And every bit of Grinch that you have in you will be momentarily eliminated. After Letterman greets her, there will be a reprise of the chorus, just to make sure you're satiated.

For the life of me, I can't explain why Love's annual appearance on Letterman gets to me; and I've spent quite a bit of time trying to figure it out. The only thing I've been able to discern is that it's because Love's performance on Letterman transcends rock n' roll, pop music, Phil Spector, Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, Christmas, gift giving, religious preferences, Letterman and Darlene Love herself. It is one of those very rare moments when a song is so intrinsically perfect, in words, music, performance and instrumentation, that for three and a half minutes nothing else matters. (Note: This is updated from earlier post. I'm that lazy.)

Added 12/22/2012:

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) mp3 at AM Then FM Simulated stereo
Video:
Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) 2011, Letterman at YouTube
Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) 2010, Letterman at YouTube
Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) 2009, Letterman at YouTube
Darlene Love - Saved (1965) at YouTube
Darlene Love - Christmas Time For The Jews (claymation) video at Hulu.com (from Saturday Night Live)
Visit:
Darlene Love Official site
Darlene Love at Wikipedia

No comments: