Darlene Love is an American musical icon. She began her singing career during the glory days of rock & roll girl groups. Her story is about the struggle of a uniquely gifted and popular black woman of faith who reached the pinnacle of the entertainment business while overcoming tremendous obstacles. Over the last fifty years, she has worked with America’s top entertainers and become a legitimate entertainment success in music, television, movies and Broadway.
As a Christian, Darlene has had a compassion for her fellow man throughout her life. She is especially concerned about Americans going hungry and supports organizations such as Feed The Children. Darlene’s father was a Pentecostal minister, so she honed her early singing skills in the choir of her father’s church. She also sang with various high school groups.
She joined her first singing group, The Blossoms, in 1959. During those days most black entertainers did what was called the “chitlin circuit”. They would work all the dumps with nothing but black entertainers. Only blacks came to those shows. Pop stations wouldn’t play black music, so blacks had their own genre, which was called rhythm and blues. Darlene told me that Phil Spector would get her records played on pop stations because “He’s a Rebel” didn’t sound like a black group, such as Martha and the Vandellas or the Supremes. Spector wouldn’t use their pictures so the disk jockeys didn’t know they were black.
Darlene and the Blossoms were part of the hit TV show Shindig when it began in 1964. The broadcasting company said that people wouldn’t watch the show if there were black people in it. Shindig’s creator Jack Good told them if you don’t want the Blossoms, then you can’t have my show. Darlene said, “Oh Lord, there is somebody black on television, and there isn’t going to be anybody watching. Are they crazy? This is good! People are going to watch it.”
Darlene also worked with Tom Jones, but wouldn’t attend his after show parties because she had heard all the stories about how wild they were. One night Tom Jones and one of his bodyguards knocked on her door. Tom said, “ Why don’t you guys ever come to our parties.” She told him, “Honey, because we were told your parties are way out, and we don’t want to be bothered with that foolishness.” Jones said it was all a joke, and they should go to his parties, so they started going. They found the parties were really nice, with everyone just talking and relaxing after the show. Then the Blossoms would say, “OK, goodnight,” and someone would say, “OK, bring on the girls the Blossoms are leaving.” So that became the joke. The Blossoms are leaving so lets have a little fun.
Darlene worked with top entertainers, including Cher, The Righteous Brothers, Marvin Gaye, Ike & Tina Turner, Dion DiMucci, Jan & Dean, the Mama’s and the Papa’s, Aretha Franklin and the Shirelles. She worked with Nancy Sinatra for two years in a Las Vegas show which also featured Mac Davis and the Osmond Brothers.
Darlene told me that the lyrics put to these songs were deliberately very innocent. “You had to figure out what we were really saying, because we didn’t want the music to be distasteful. We called it bubblegum music. You know, I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still, Da Doo Ron Ron , Da Doo Ron Ron, now what does that mean?” She said you have to kind of figure out what we are singing about. You know, I met this guy, Honey, and baby listen here! But you don’t say that in the song. You just let the people figure out what we were singing about.”
Darlene soon caught the attention of Phil Specter and almost immediately began recording the most popular records of the early 1960’s, including huge hits like “He’s A Rebel”, written by Gene Pitney,” Wait Til My Bobby Gets Home”, “ Today I Met The Boy I’m Going To Marry”,” The Da Doo Ron Ron”, “ He’s Sure The Boy I Love”, “Why do Lovers Break Each Others Hearts?”, “Not To Young To Get Married”, Christmas
(Baby Please Come Home”) and many others. In 1993, she recorded the huge hit “All Alone On Christmas”, for the hit movie “Home Alone II”. These were enormously successful commercial songs.
Phil Spector became very rich and famous with the wall of sound. He had over 25 top 40 hits between 1960 and 1965, many of which were done with Darlene singing the lead. Darlene said that these songs didn’t change her life for several years, because when she did “He’s A Rebel”, she did it under the name of the Crystals. Nobody knew it was Darlene Love singing except Phil Spector, the musicians and the promoters. So that didn’t change her life. When it came time for the Crystals next hit, Phil called her in, and they went in to do the “Da Doo Ron Ron”.
She said he had one hit on her under the name of the Crystals, and she didn’t get nothing from that and neither did the Crystals, because the Crystals weren’t even on it. She told Spector, “I have to have a contract. It is totally ridiculous for me to keep singing for you and not have a contract.” So they signed a contract. When they went in to do the “Da Doo Ron Ron”, Phil and Darlene had a disagreement and she left the studio. A couple of months later Spector wanted to put the record out. Darlene had already started recording the “Da Doo Ron Ron” and had done a few takes on it. Because Spector was still upset, he flew in La La Brooks, the lead singer of the Crystals, and put La La’s voice in over Darlene’s. So Darlene didn’t get credit for the “Da Doo Ron Ron” either.
Then came “He’s Sure The Boy I Love”, and Phil Spector stated this was going to be Darlene’s first record. Darlene recorded “He’s Sure The Boy I Love”. A few days later she was listening to the radio, and the DJ said here is the latest release by the Crystals and it was “He’s Sure The Boy I Love”. Darlene had a fit! She figured this was going to be her record. The Crystals did all the records that were number one. Her records never went higher then the top twenty even though it was the same voice.
Darlene’s voice sounds nothing like the Crystals. The Crystals’ “Uptown” sounds nothing like Darlene’s “He’s A Rebel”. Darlene said the “Da Doo Ron Ron” sounds a little like La La because her voice is over Darlene’s, and Phil brought their voices together just enough to mix it, but you hear Darlene in all the background. The Crystals never had another record after “He’s Sure the Boy I Love”. Spector then started with the Ronettes, Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, The Righteous Brothers, Tina Turner, and went on to the Beatles.
In 1997 a jury awarded Darlene several hundred thousand dollars for back royalties from Phil Spector. Spector had claimed that Darlene didn’t have a contract with him, and wasn’t a singer with his record company. Fanita James, who was one of the Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, found the old contract buried in a closet. Darlene’s lawyer had it blown up poster size, and that was all they had to show the jury, so Darlene won the case.
Spector produced John Lennon’s “Imagine” album, with “Get back”, “The Long and Winding Road” and “Let It Be”, Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”. He also co-wrote and produced the song “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin” for the Righteous Brothers, which is the song with the most airplay in the 20th century.
Spector had a reputation for flashing guns. He was accused of drunken rages, and his ex-wives and children said he abused them. Singer, Leonard Cohen called him a madman out of control. Stories were told of guests at his mansion complaining of being locked in by him. Darlene said her friend Ronnie Spector, one of Spector’s four wives and the lead singer of the Ronettes whose top songs included “Be My Baby”, “The Best Part of Breakin’ Up”, “Walking in the Rain and, “Baby I Love You”, told her that before he would let her leave him, he would kill her and put her downstairs in a glass coffin, so he could come down and look at her every day. In April of 2009, Spector was sentenced to prison for a term of 19 years to life for the 2003 murder of 40-year-old actress Lana Clarkson in his infamous 30-room mansion in Alhambra, California.
There was a time when Darlene left her career and fell on hard times. In 1981, she had been on the road with Dionne Warwick for ten years, decided to leave and come back home. When she came home, she found there was no work and all the recording sessions had dried up. She couldn’t get unemployment, because you don’t get unemployment for working with people like Dionne Warwick and Tom Jones. She had no money coming in, had two children and nobody else to depend on. She started doing house work and whatever else she could find to make ends meet. She did this for about a year and said, “I never turn my back on God, and how I know God is always with me is that one day I was cleaning this ladies house during the Christmas holidays, and my song “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” came over the radio. I said you know, Lord, this is a sign, and this is not what I am supposed to do. I am supposed to be singing.” From that day on, she returned to entertainment and never turned back.
Bruce Springsteen and producer Steve Van Zandt came to one of her shows in California. Van Zandt introduced her to Allan Pepper, who owns The Bottom Line club in New York. She went to New York and ended up appearing in “Leader Of The Pack”, “Hairspray” and “Grease” on Broadway. From there she also did all four “Lethal Weapon” movies. She has since headlined worldwide concert tours. In 1993, she recorded the Christmas mega-hit “All Alone On Christmas” for the movie “Home Alone II”.
With her 1963 Christmas hit, “Baby Please Come Home”, her 1993 Christmas mega-hit “All Alone On Christmas” and her long running yearly Christmas holiday appearances on “The Late Show with David Letterman”, she has become a Christmas favorite. Darlene’s music is still played regularly on radio today, fifty years after she recorded it.
She has been much more then a key rock & roll singer, TV star, Broadway artist and successful movie actress. Darlene is all of those things, but most importantly she is an articulate, friendly, humorous and caring lady of unwavering faith in God. She has endured through incredible challenges to achieve the American dream. Darlene’s incredible life and career has touched the lives of us all.
Mike Westfall can be contacted at his website: http://michaelwestfall.tripod.com/index.html
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