On the show were Oliver Stone and Kirstie Alley.
And, of course, Darlene Love.
"Christmas, Baby Please Come Home" has been regaled by many for it's greatness. And justifiably so.
Despite the fact that Love says the song is an invitation for the lonely, and everyone else, to go home to be with their families for the holidays.
I don't think so.
This is a hymn for the dispossessed, the heartbroken, those souls from the island of misfit lonely hearts. Dressed up in a gorgeous melody meant to soften the naked and longing emotion that Love brings to the Phil Spector classic. Her "please, please, please," call and response is a lead up to both the most thrilling and gut-wrenching denouement in the history of rock and roll.
The song was released on Nov. 22, 1963, which just happens to be the same day that JFK was assassinated. The song, and the brilliant album it came from, flopped, Christmas was a cloud for many that year, and it was a song and album that had a muted arrival, even though Love's masterpiece had a message that was ironically appropriate for the end of Camelot.
Every holiday season, this song comes in like a blast, a glorious wall of sound reminder that Christmas is not always glad tidings of comfort and joy.
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