Things you didn't know about Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)! Behind the Christmas Hits

Rolling Stone calls it the greatest rock and roll Christmas song ever but it went largely unnoticed for a decade after coinciding with a tragedy.  This is the story behind…Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) -  Presented by Pizza Pizza!

It was recorded in 1963 for the album A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector.  The album gave Phil’s signature “wall of sound” treatment to well-known Christmas songs like Frosty the Snowman, Winter Wonderland and White Christmas.
 
The one original song on the album was Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) with Darlene Love on lead vocal and Cher on the backing vocals.  

It was meant to be the album’s lead single, but it was released on November 22, 1963 – the same day US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  The song never charted and the album was not the success Spector envisioned.  
But Spector thought he had something with Darlene Love’s incredible vocal performance, so after Christmas he brought Darlene back and they recorded a new version called Johnny, Please Come Home.  Same music. Just different lyrics to tell a similar story without any reference to Christmas.  That really didn’t work out either and the song virtually vanished for almost a decade.  
  
The album was re-released in 1972 on Apple Records – the label founded by The Beatles – and that’s what sent it on it’s path to becoming a Christmas classic.  It peaked at #6 on Billboard’s album chart that year – while that’s it’s highest chart position to date, it re-entered the chart as recently as 2019, peaking at #12.

Artists are often asked how they feel about singing songs year after year that have been out for so long.  When Darlene Love sings live, you expect to hear her sing Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – but she’s not tired of it. Possibly because she didn’t sing it live for the first 20 years it was out.  

As told in the Oscar-winning documentary, 20 Feet From Stardom, Darlene was a background singer back in the day and never had the chance to perform the song live.  It wasn’t until the 80’s that she’d perform the song regularly.  
 
On his last show before Christmas, from 1986 – 2014, David Letterman would bring Darlene Love on his show to sing the song.  During her final Letterman appearance, she finished the song standing on Paul Schaefer’s piano and did not come down when Dave came over to thank her.  She reportedly stayed on top of the piano because she didn’t want to cry if Dave hugged her after that final performance.  
 
Darlene still sings the song live on TV every year – since Letterman wrapped up his nightly show, she now performs it annually on The View.  
 
Darlene was involved in the recording of another version of the song for the 1987 charity album A Very Special Christmas. U2 did a faithful cover of the original and asked Darlene to sing the backing vocal.  Darlene Love, now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is the only singer to ever back up U2 and Elvis Presley.  

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