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It is now officially Christmas season in New York - the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was lit on Wednesday night. Among the celebrities who brought some Christmas cheer to the festivities were Darlene Love and Cher, who sang a duet of Love’s iconic 1963 classic, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”. Love renewed another Christmas tradition for the fifth year in a row, as she appeared on 710 WOR Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to talk about the song that means Christmas is right around the corner.
“If we counted me doing it on David Letterman for 28 years, that’s 28 years I did it,” Love recounted for Berman and Riedel. “Plus, it being recorded in 1961 (sic), so every Christmas show I’ve done over the last 20 years, I’ve sung that song. Believe me, its hard not to sing it when I’m doing my regular show, because people want me to sing it then, too. But I said, listen, you won’t have it to look forward to if I did it all year!”
Cher actually sang back-up for Love in her very first recording session as Love was recording “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, an event which Love also recounted. “I met her when she was 17, actually. She was Sonny Bono’s girlfriend, and she came to one of our sessions, when we were doing the Christmas album… Phil (Spector) kept telling her, ‘Move back, Cher! Move back, Cher! You’re too loud! You’re too loud!’ And then I told Phil, I said, ‘This is the first time she’s ever been in the studio. What are you trying to do to her? Leave her alone!’”
Love will be at The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street) for a show at 8pm tonight, where she will also receive a platinum award for the song. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, or at The Town Hall box office.
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