Chart Week: December 16, 2023
Song: “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – Darlene Love
Chart Position: #21. Current all-time high is #15 the week of January 7, 2023.
I heard the wonderful tidbit this post is built around earlier this year on an AT40 from December 1984. It was one of Casey’s “Special Reports,” music trivia blurbs not related to the current countdown that were occasionally inserted between songs. I copied down the details, wondering if there was some way I could work it into an RFTS post. When this holiday season rolled around I realized that thanks to the updated Billboard rules, I could write about it while using a modern chart.
In that 1984 Special Report, Casey shared the story of the now legendary holiday album, A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector. As strange as it may sound today, in the final month of the greatest year in pop music history, that album had largely been forgotten.
Casey said that project was Spector’s “white elephant.” He spent an insane amount of time and money making it, recording every track countless times until they met his mental image of the perfect sound. He wanted to make THE classic Christmas album, one that every American would know for generations to come.
However, history got in the way of Spector’s dreams for the album. It was released on November 22, 1963, the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. In the nation’s season of mourning, record buyers were not in the mood for bright, happy Christmas songs. The album bombed. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” was the single sent to radio stations, and it had the same fate, disappearing quickly from the airwaves.
By 1984 the album was essentially out of print, according to Casey. I’ve learned that wasn’t exactly true. It had been re-released several times, including in both 1983 and 1984, but never generated much sales. Casey said that finding a copy in 1984 was extremely difficult, and they were highly prized among a small group of collectors. Again, I don’t think this represents reality, but it does to speak to how little of a cultural impact the album had made to this point.
Times were about to change, though.
Earlier in 1984, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” was the soundtrack for the opening scene of Steven Spielberg’s Gremlins, the fourth-biggest grossing movie of that terrific box office year.
In 1986 Darlene Love performed the song on Late Night with David Letterman, a tradition that would continue for 29 years.[1]
A year later, A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector was released on compact disc. This was perfect timing, as the 1990s brought a dramatic increase in the number of radio stations that played holiday music between Thanksgiving and Christmas. By the turn of the millennium, Love, The Ronettes, and The Crystals all had tracks from Spector’s album that had become December radio mainstays.
Also in 1987, a U2 cover of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” was included on the A Very Special Christmas album that raised funds for Special Olympics. That helped (re)introduce the song to my generation. It is also the only cover of Love’s original that is worth listening to.[2]
All these developments turned a nearly forgotten track on a buried album into a holiday classic.
I can’t be unbiased about this song. As I’ve said in past holiday seasons, it is my favorite modern Christmas record. Everything about it is perfect. Love’s vocals are a volcanic surge of emotion. She sings as if she can bridge the gap to her lost love with her voice alone. Countering Love are the backing vocalists – including Cher! – who sing so causally that they almost seem bored. Every note is filled with sadness and yearning, yet also with happiness and hope. That is the true genius of this song, how it takes that mix of joy and pain that is present during the holidays and turns it into a glorious, three-minute pop tune.
As Billboard revised its rules over the years, Christmas music began hitting the mainstream singles chart regularly in the mid–2010s. December 13, 2014 was the first week “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” registered on the pop chart. It is now a perennial entry on the Hot 100, reaching #15 earlier this year. Given the rise of Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” to number one this year, there’s an excellent chance that Love’s track has a higher peak ahead as well.
Rolling Stone magazine rated “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” as the greatest rock ’n’ roll Christmas song of all time in 2010. They weren’t wrong. Spector got his wish. It took nearly 30 years, but eventually A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector became a bonafide classic. 10/10
I was going to share Love’s first appearance on Late Night With David Letterman to close this post. But, in a true Christmas miracle, earlier this week Letterman posted a video of Love reuniting with him. The piece ends with her 29th rendition of the song with Paul Shaffer.
Merry Christmas everybody!