The perenial holiday favorite penned by Irvin Berlin, as sung by the marvelous Darlene Love, is from the 1963 classic holiday lp “A Christmas Gift For You from Phil Spector.” This is a song that will never grow old for me.
I love the entire album — but the songs sung by the talented and under-exposed Ms. Love are my favorites.
This is a classic from A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. Along with the Carpenters Holiday collection, Nat King Cole’s Holiday collection and a handful of others, this is probably in the top 10 of Holiday offerings of all time! There is not a bad song in the bunch and, of course, anything Darlene Love sings is tops with me.
Ms. Love has got to be one of the most underrated singers of all time. I have followed her career ever since I watched her in the Blossoms on Shindig! (Mary J, you are not the first AA woman to sport a blonde wig!). Perhaps if she wasn’t signed to Phil Spector’s stable of artists, her career might have taken a different turn. Spector was obsessed with Ronnie’s career just as Berry Gordy was obsessed with Diana Ross’ career and the other artists on their respective labels got the short end of the stick .
I was fortunate enough to hear Darlene perform live a few years ago when the Funk Brothers show came here to D.C. The lady did not need a microphone — her voice was the strongest and purest tone I had ever heard come of of the mouth of an artist live on stage. She should be doing theater, if she isn’t already. She was just remarkable.
Spector digitally remastered and reissued A Christmas Gift for You in 1989 as cd #4 of the Back to Mono Box set on Phil Spector Records, Inc. If this is not part of your collection I urge you to pick it up.
