A LOVE-Y, LETTERMAN CHRISTMAS

An Oral History of Darlene Love’s Legendary Letterman Christmas Performances

We spoke to the singer and Late Show bandleader Paul Shaffer about one of TV’s best holiday rituals.

BY MATTHEW LYNCH

DECEMBER 19, 2014

https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/5494534848de990f76761d67/master/w_2560,c_limit/darlene-love-late-show-david-letterman-christmas-vf.jpg

Darlene's performances of 'Christmas' at Letterman from 1986, 1993, 2010, 2013 (clockwise).CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF YOUTUBE (3), © CBS 2010.

“For some of us in show business, Christmas is not the happiest time of year,” Paul Shaffer said on the phone this week. “Everybody else is relaxing; we’re working. We’re away from our families.”

Shaffer, David Letterman’s bandleader and sidekick through three decades, could be forgiven for sounding a bit wistful. He was speaking to VF Hollywood in the days leading up to the Thursday night taping of the last performance of the best Christmas tradition on U.S. television. Sometime between midnight and 12:35 A.M. on Friday night/Saturday morning, Darlene Love will perform her 1963 song “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on Late Show with David Letterman for the last time. She has sung it on the program nearly every year since 1986.

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Darlene Love’s Last ‘Letterman’ Christmas



Darlene Love on Thursday before a rehearsal. She will sing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on the “Late Show With David Letterman” for the last time.Credit...Joshua Bright for The New York Times

By Dave Itzkoff
Dec. 18, 2014

Darlene Love would like it known that she is available at the holiday season to perform “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” under certain conditions. ... “It’s still a Christmas song till Jan. 1,” said Ms. Love, the rock, soul and gospel singer, as she sat in a Midtown Manhattan bistro on Thursday afternoon. ... But she has vowed not to sing it for any other TV talk-show hosts after David Letterman, the man who gave her an on-air platform to perform it for nearly 30 years. ... “People say, ‘He can’t demand that,'” Ms. Love explained, sweeping back her curly platinum hair. “I say, ‘He’s not demanding.’ I made a point myself, and I want to do it just for David.”

Television is rich with year-end traditions, whether it’s Rudolph’s resplendent nose or Charlie Brown’s defeated Christmas tree. But now one of these enduring institutions is about to fade out like so many Yule logs. ... A few hours after this interview, Ms. Love, 73, stepped onto the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater and sang this signature song on Mr. Letterman’s “Late Show” for the final time.

Her prediction was that, when she concluded that show (which will be broadcast on Friday night), “it’s going to be a weepy moment, for me anyway.” ... “I hope I don’t look like a clown by the time it’s all over,” she added.

Ms. Love’s annual presentation of this song, which she originally recorded for the 1963 Phil Spector album “A Christmas Gift for You,” is one of several customs that will come to an end when Mr. Letterman departs his CBS program on May 20. ... Her association with Mr. Letterman goes back to 1986, when she sang the song on his NBC show, “Late Night,” with the bandleader Paul Shaffer and what was then a four-piece rock group trying to replicate Mr. Spector’s echoing Wall of Sound style.



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Steven Van Zandt, the guitarist and member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, offered a succinct explanation of why Ms. Love has endured in popular music. ... “It’s real simple,” he said with a laugh. “She’s the greatest singer in the world.”

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Darlene Love's spectacular final Christmas performance for The Late Show with David Letterman sad fa

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Darlene Love's final performance of "Christmas, Baby Please Come Home" on The Late Show with David Letterman - Dec 18, 2014.