http://youtu.be/RfurmGiKZ5k
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – Darlene Love
Most holiday seasons there is one Christmas song I listen to a little more than the others, or one that connects with me a little more than the rest. Some years it is a relatively new song that gets stuck in my head. Other years it is a song I’ve heard hundreds of times that suddenly tickles the right part of my brain.[1]
Year-after-year, though, there is no finer, modern, secular Christmas song than this. That’s likely because it’s just a flat out amazing song. Adjust the lyrics a bit to take out the holiday references, and it becomes an all-time great pop song, suitable for playing in any season.
Tonight is the final time Darlene Love will be singing it on national TV. The good folks at Worldwide Pants have put together this mash-up from some of her appearances on David Letterman’s show over the years. I suggest you stay up late tonight, or set the DVR, as I imagine this year’s rendition will be especially good.
(The New York Times writes about tonight’s performance here. How in the hell did I not know that Love played Danny Glover’s wife in the Lethal Weapon series? I’m so disappointed in myself.)
- Oddly enough, no song has emerged as The One this year. ↩