"Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)"

Note:  For those of you who are wondering, I am aware that actress Brittany Murphy has passed away. It is also the Yuletide, however, and I would like to do some holiday oriented post. I will then eulogise Miss Murphy after December 25.

As anyone who has read this blog regularly in the past already knows, my favourite Yuletide song is "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)," originally performed by Darlene Love.  The song was written by Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich, and was the only original on the classic 1963 album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector (the other songs being covers of old holiday standards). The song was originally meant for Ronnie Spector, but it seems that she could not project the amount of emotion the song needed. It was then Darlene Love who sang the song on the album, it has since become her signature song.

With the exception of 2007 (during the writers' strike), Darlene Love has performed the song every year from 1997 to 2008 on Late Night with David Letterman and later The Late Show with David Letterman.  It has since been covered by such diverse artists as U2, Death Cab for Cutie, and Dion. It was also used in the opening credits of  the movie Gremlins.

This is a clip from Darlene Love's 2005 performance on The Late Show with David Letterman.



And here is a clip of U2 performing their version.