Darlene Love brings Love for the Holidays
Darlene Love’s voice was heard by thousands as lead singer for the girl group The Blossoms in the 1960s. However, The Blossoms never had a hit song under their own name and lent their vocals as backup singers to known acts such as The Righteous Brothers, Dionne Warwick, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and hundreds more.
Darlene was approached by Phil Spector, one of the most influential figures in pop music history, to offer her voice on “He’s a Rebel” which quickly shot to the top of the pop charts. The catch was the song was credited to The Crystals, a different girl group that Spector managed. Spector went on to produce a number of chart-toppers for The Blossoms, sometimes as The Crystals, other times as Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans.
In 1963, Darlene Love grew frustrated with giving her voice away with little to no credit and became a star in her own right when she convinced Phil Spector to release three singles under her own name including “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” which has become synonymous with holiday music.
In the 1970’s after musical tastes evolved and strayed away from the 60s girl group sound, Love’s career lagged but after deciding that she couldn’t stay in the shadows, she relaunched her music career in 1981 by performing shows around Los Angeles and releasing her first solo album in 1988.
In 2011, Love received the recognition she had been longing for since the 1960s when she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2013, 20 Feet from Stardom, a documentary that focused on the lives of backup singers and featured Darlene Love’s perseverance and passion to have her own name tied to the songs she sang, went on to win the Oscar for best documentary at the 86th Academy Awards and the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Music Film with the award being presented to the featured artists and production crew.
In recent years, Love has written an autobiography “My Name is Love” and released the album “Introducing Darlene Love”, making it clear we still have a lot to learn about “the most successful unknown singer in rock and roll history”.