ADVENT CALENDAR: Dec 7 - Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

This glorious track has been a festive favourite of mine for a few years now. Sadly, a certain supermarket chain has been inappropriately using a badly-edited version of the song for a TV ad, despite the lyrics concerning heartbreak and loneliness at Christmas. But I won't let the TV ad people ruin it for me, and you shouldn't let them spoil your enjoyment of this fine single either. 'Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)' was a highlight of Phil Spector's legendary 1963 LP 'A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records, and was written by Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. The vocals were originally intended to be recorded by Ronnie Spector, but a "lack of emotion" resulted in Darlene Love having a go at the song, resulting in one of the all-time Christmas classics.

The landmark American talk show Late Night with David Letterman brought the track back into the spotlight, when Love was invited onto the show every year from 1986 to 2014 to sing a rendition of the song. This tradition went on for 28 years, until the show ended a few years ago.

Darlene Love was a minister's daughter, born in 1941. After she started singing with her local church choir, Love joined vocal group the Blossoms.Her powerful voice led to her soon becoming a highly sought-after vocalist, working with legends including Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, Bill Medley, the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones and Sonny and Cher. In the 80's she went into acting alongside her musical career. Another Christmas track recorded by Love (quite similar to the one featured here) 'All Alone on Christmas' was used in the 1992 film Home Alone 2.