Pantheon Songs

Darlene Love is a woman who is oftentimes forgotten about when the topic of pre-Beatlemania music history is tossed around. Though she was a star female voice within Phil Spector’s group of singers, she never had that timeless mega-hit like Ronnie Spector scored with “Be My Baby.” And though she was highly regarded by her peers and even performed with giants like Sam Cooke and Elvis Presley, she undoubtedly will always lose out to Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross if you were to ask someone to tell you which ’60′s female singers come to mind first.

Heck, even the name “Darlene Love” may cause you to scratch your head as to what she sang (or what she looks like, if you did not have the benefit of seeing the above picture of her).

In terms of the Christmas music genre, though, Love’s contribution—“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”—is, to me, the crown jewel. Every other attempt at covering this song ranges from “futile attempt” to “outright blasphemy” in my book. It is to me the most perfect Christmas song ever recorded.

Written by Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” was initially intended to be performed by The Ronettes but Phil Spector did not find Ronnie Spector’s vocals to be up to par for the song. Love performed the song in the studio instead and the end result was a perfect communion of Phil Spector’s “wall-of-sound” recording: the combination of high-energy vocals set against multi-layered music recorded in mono.

The song begins with an indelible orchestral burst of—amongst other things—bells, violins, and a stand-up bass before building up into a beautifully textured and flowing track complete with choruses of “Christmas” sung in the background. When Love starts to sing, though, is when the song completes its metamorphosis into Pantheon status. Her voice is so polished, so yearning, so strong that the song almost seems to bend to her presence. This bending is on full display when you hear the back-and-forth between her “Please!”s and the piano, as Leon Russell completely alters his piano playing to accompany her vocals as well as the ensuing crescendo.

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is one of the few original songs to appear on the album A Christmas Gift To You By Phil Spector and it is surrounded by other instant classics,^[1] yet it clearly emerges as the masterwork of the album and, to me, it emerges as the greatest Christmas song ever made.

So, it is only fitting to me to write about this song and officially welcome it into my own personal Pantheon today, on Christmas Eve. You may have other Christmas songs ranked higher than this in your own mind but you would be hard-pressed to listen to this song and not feel a little giddy about being in the throes of the holiday season, or to be thankful if all of your family is nearby.

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[1] If you do not own A Christmas Gift To You By Phil Spector just buy it after reading this post. It is the best non-compilation Christmas album ever made. This is not up for debate.