THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

820-Darlene Love-Christmas (Baby Please Come Home.)

1963-It didn’t chart in the UK top 40 until 2018, when it peaked at Number 22.

Best Bit-At 1.14. The Spector of Christmas past.

Darlene Love was born Darlene Wright on July 26th, 1941, in Los Angeles, California, United States, her stage name was chosen by Phil Spector (1939-2021) (see also best songs 782-737-262-192-127-91 and 20.) Darlene Love was a ministers daughter, who grew up singing ‘Gospel Music’ with her local choir. She turned to ‘Secular Music’ in high school, and was then invited to join the little known girl group the ‘Blossoms.’ It was in 1962 as a member of the Blossoms that Darlene Love first met Phil Spector, who recorded the song ‘He’s a Rebel’ with the group, with Love on lead vocals, but to insure that the song would have a better chance of being a hit, Spector released the song with the performance credited to the more established girl group the ‘Crystals.’ (see also best songs 262.) ‘He’s a Rebel’ went on to become an American Billboard Number 1 single, and also made Number 19 in the UK. Spector then signed Darlene Love to his ‘Philles Record’ label, and recorded ‘He’s Sure the Boy I Love,’ (Billboard Number 11-1963) which Love thought would be credited to her, but once again Spector credited the ‘Crystals,’ with both parties being unaware of what Spector had planned.

As a solo artist, Darlene Love has released five Albums between 1988-2015, there are also four official compilation Albums, and three live Albums available. She has also appeared on at least 38 singles, that have been issued between 1961-2005, with seven of those tracks reaching the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart top 40, with ‘He’s a Rebel’ (released as the Crystals) making Number 1. In the UK, she has hit the top 40 on three occasions, with ‘He’s a Rebel’ charting the highest at Number 19. Darlene Love has also appeared in 10 films between 1969-2020, including in four of the ‘Lethal Weapon’ movies, where she played the character ‘Trish Murtaugh.’

‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home’) was written by the legendary songwriting team of Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich, (1940-2009) (see also best songs 331-262-192 and 127) along with Phil Spector, with the songs ‘Wall of Sound’ production being by Spector. ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home’) is the only original song of the 13 tracks that made up ‘A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records,’ which would later be re-named ‘A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector,’ from November 1963. All of the artists who appeared on the Album were signed to Phil Spector’s ‘Philles’ record label, and these included, ‘The Ronettes,’ (‘Frosty the Snowman,’ & ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,’) and the ‘Crystals,’ (‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,’ & ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.’) When the Album was first issued, coincidentally on the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, it made very little commercial impact, but in the intervening years it has come to be regarded by many music critics as the greatest ‘festive’ Album of all time.

Darlene Love has recalled working with Phil Spector on the Album,’Phil worked everybody so hard on the Album, and the days kind of blurred into each other, thinking about it now. But there was a real Christmas party atmosphere in the studio, even though it was the height of summer, and a lot of great musicians were involved. They weren’t that well-known at the time but so many of them went on to become famous in their own right, like Leon Russell (1942-2016.) Sonny Bono (1935-1998) and Cher, (see also best songs 672) were involved in a lot of the stuff too, so was Glen Campbell (1936-2017) (see also best songs 846 and 197.) We worked hard, though, some days we’d be in the studio for eight or nine hours just doing one verse of one song.’

Beginning in 1986, and continuing for the next 29 years, Darlene Love was invited to perform ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home’) annually at Christmas, on the ‘Late Night With David Letterman,’ American television programme. When Letterman retired in 2015, another American television talk show called ‘The View’ continued the tradition, keeping Darlene Love, and ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home’) in the Christmas spotlight.

‘(Christmas) The snow’s coming down, (Christmas) I’m watching it fall. (Christmas) Lots of people around, (Christmas) Baby, please come home. (Christmas) The church bells in town, (Christmas) all ringing in song. (Christmas) Full of happy sounds, (Christmas) Baby, please come home.’