Darlene Love



After appearing as one of the subjects in the Oscar-winning documentary "Twenty Feet from Stardom", the name Darlene Love isn't likely to be forgotten any time soon.  Again, that is.  After having spent five decades in someone else's shadow, Ms. Love's time, seemingly, has finally come.  And although said shadows belonged to some fairly famous folks such as Elvis Presley, Cher, Aretha Franklin, Tom Jones, and Dionne Warwick, Ms. Love was just always somehow destined to become a star in her own right.

 

Once a member of the girl group The Blossoms, preacher's daughter Darlene Wright was spotted and singled-out by the incomparable Phil Spector in the early '60s.  He renamed her Darlene Love.  Soon thereafter she scored big hits with early Wall of Sound classics like "He's a Rebel", "He's Sure the Boy I Love" and "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah".  Except they weren't issued under her own new-found name.  Instead Spector, apparently already the insufferable megalomaniac whom we've love to loathe, put them out under the names of already established girl group The Crystals, who were reportedly touring at the time, and Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, the latter of which comprised of Darlene along with fellow Blossom Fanita James and singer Bobby James (No relation).



After a couple of more mostly artistically unsatisfactory and frustrating years working for Spector, The Blossoms struck out on their own and quickly became known as the backing singers for hire on the U.S. West Coast, appearing regularly on T.V. shows such as Shindig as well.  From Doris Day to Marvin Gaye; if a trio of superb backing singers was needed The Blossoms were more than likely contenders.  Along the way, though, were the occasional one-off single releases under their own moniker, such as Laura Nyro's "Stoney End", which was issued on Lou Adler's Ode Records in 1967.  Arguably, it's their crowning achivement but it was sabotaged by both poor distribution and no promotion - not to mention Barbra Streisand's abominable cover hit version a couple of years later.



Spells working for the kings of Las Vegas, Elvis Presley, and Tom Jones, yet financially lucrative - momentarily at least - did little to further The Blossoms' career outside the back-up singing circuit.  Volatile relations within the group didn't help matters much and they had broken up by the early '70s, by which time Darlene had begun dating Righteous Brother Bill Medley, although that match made in music heaven didn't last.
The '70s Darlene spent mostly in the employment of diva Dionne Warwick, but an unexpected and needless to add, unwanted reunion with Phil Spector was imminent once he bought out her solo deal with Philly soul impresarios Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff in the mid '70s.  Back to square one, then.
By the early '80s Darlene Love had, perhaps understandably, all but given up on the music business and was making an honest living cleaning houses in Hollywood.  However, following steady gigs appearing on cruise ships, a mid-'80s Girl Group revival was ignited once the musical "Leader of the Pack - The Ellie Greenwich Story", in which Darlene Love had a starring role, briefly ran on Broadway and in return helped to properly re-launch her career.



Darlene's old pal from the '60s Cher quickly came calling for her expertise services, and all of a sudden things were looking up once more.  Further steady work came in the guise of Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, and others.  Also, annual appearances on the David Letterman Show performing what has become her signature song, the Wall of Sound chestnut "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time, have helped to keep her name afloat for a couple of decades now.  And let us not forget her acting role as Danny Glover's wife in the "Lethal Weapon" franchise!
So it really didn't come as a big surprise when somebody got the bright idea to make a documentary focusing on those unsung - excuse the poor pun! - heroes of the music business; backing singers.  And of course it didn't take a nuclear scientist to see that Darlene Love fitted the job description to a T...

Recommended listening:

"So Much Love - A Darlene Love Anthology 1958 - 1998" (Ace Records, U.K.  2008)
"Back to Mono, 1958 - 1969"/Various Artists (Phil Spector-produced) (ABKCO, 1991)

Recommended reading:

"My Name is Love".  Darlene Love with Rob Hoerburger (1998/2013)

Recommended viewing:

"Twenty Feet from Stardom".  Written & directed by Morgan Neville (2013)
"Girl Groups - The Story of a Sound".  A 1983 documentary based on the Alan Betrock book.