The singer got a little help from Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul and Paul Shaffer
Darlene Love brought some festive cheer to The Tonight Show, performing her holiday classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” The singer appeared with Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul and Paul Shaffer, who played grand piano for the rousing version of the 1962 hit.
Love originally recorded “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” for the 1963 compilation album A Christmas Gift for You From Philles Records (also known as A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector), which was produced by Phil Spector. Cher notably performed background vocals on the song and eventually covered it herself last year. Cher’s version, which featured Love, appeared on her LP, Christmas.
Last year, Love spoke to Rolling Stone and talked about recording both the old and new versions of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and how the two singers formed a lifelong friendship following that original recording session together.
“Sonny Bono was working for [Phil] Spector at that time,” Love said. “He was one of those guys that would go get whatever Phil needed. We used to call him ‘The Gopher.’ And then one time, he brought this girl to the session. She was very quiet, very humble, very shy. I said, ‘Sonny, who is that?’ He goes, ‘This is Cher. This is my new girlfriend.’ She was just 17 years old.”
She added of reuniting with Cher for the new edition, “The whole thing only took an hour. They legitimately just wanted me to sing it the way I sing it when I perform it live, which is amazing. We got it in just four takes. They said, ‘That’s it. We got what we want.’ And I had no idea what they were going to do with it until I heard the final product, but we sing the verses together in unison. I was really surprised by how wonderful it turned out.”
Last November, Love and Cher performed a duet of the track as part of the annual Rockefeller Center tree lighting. That same month, U2 offered their own rendition at Las Vegas’ Sphere, performing the yuletide classic for the first time in nearly 36 years.
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