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Love Class, True, Higher Love, Spiritual Love, Unconditional Love - Sat satyogainstitute.org | Darlene McCord - About Dr. Darlene McCord, PhD, FAPWCA- McCord Research darlene-mccord.com |
Darlene Love (née Wright; born July 26, 1941) is an American popular music singer.
[edit] Biography[edit] Early careerLove began her singing with her local church choir in Hawthorne, California. While still in high school (1959) she was invited to join a little-known girl group called The Blossoms, who in 1962 began working with producer Phil Spector. With her powerful voice she was soon a highly sought-after vocalist, and managed to work with many of the legends of 1950s and 1960s rock and soul, including Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones and Sonny and Cher; Darlene and the Blossoms sang back-up vocals on Shelley Fabares's hit, "Johnny Angel" as well as John Phillips' solo album John, Wolfking of L.A. recorded in 1969. They also appeared on Johnny Rivers' hits including "Poor Side of Town" and Motown covers "Baby I Need Your Loving" and "The Tracks of My Tears."(The Blossoms recorded singles, usually with little success, on Capitol 1957-58 [pre-Darlene Love], Challenge 1961-62, OKeh 1963, Reprise 1966-67, Ode 1967, MGM 1968, Bell 1969-70, and Lion 1972.) With The Blossoms she also sang backing vocals on many of the biggest hits of the 1960s, including Spector's own "Da Doo Ron Ron" (allegedly recorded with her lead, which was later erased by Spector and re-recorded using Crystals' lead Dolores "LaLa" Brooks). Though credited by Spector as singles recorded by The Crystals, "He's A Rebel" and "He's Sure The Boy I Love" actually featured Love singing lead, backed by The Blossoms. "Today I Met The Boy I'm Gonna Marry" was released as a single by Spector, and featured Love's name as the artist. She was also part of a trio called Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, who recorded a song in 1962, with their rendition of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" from the Walt Disney film, Song of the South, which got into the top ten in 1963. The Blossoms landed a weekly part on Shindig!, one of the top music shows of the era. They were part of the highly acclaimed Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special, which aired on NBC. [edit] Career breakInto the 1970s Love continued to work as a back-up singer, before taking a break in order to raise a family. In 1973, she recorded vocals as a cheerleader along with Michelle Phillips, for the Cheech & Chong single "Basketball Jones", which peaked at No.15 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. [edit] 1980s returnLove returned to music in the early 1980s and to an appreciative audience she thought might have long since forgotten her. In addition to singing the songs that made her famous, she has re-explored her gospel roots on several recordings. In the mid-1980s she portrayed herself in the Tony Award-nominated jukebox musical Leader of the Pack, which featured the iconic rock and roll songs written by Ellie Greenwich, many of them for the young Love. The showstopping number of that show, "River Deep - Mountain High" had been recorded for Phil Spector by Ike & Tina Turner and had been less than the success they had expected. Leader of the Pack commenced as a revue at the Greenwich Village nightclub the Bottom Line, as did the later show about Love's life, Portrait of a Singer, which never made the move uptown. Portrait included covers of "The Change Is Going to Come" and "Don't Make Me Over" as well as "River Deep, Mountain High" and original music written by some of the instrumental writers of early rock and roll, including Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Love contributed a cover of The Hollywood Argyles song "Alley Oop" to the soundtrack of the 1984 film Bachelor Party. In 1987, Love sang back-up for U2's cover of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", while in 1990, Cher invited Love and her sister Edna Wright as her background vocalist for the Heart of Stone Tour. She also released a minor single in 1992 with "All Alone on Christmas" - written and composed by Steven Van Zandt which can be found on the Home Alone 2: Lost In New York soundtrack. Love also contributed vocals to the soundtrack of the film Jingle All the Way. [edit] Acting rolesIn the late 1980s and 1990s, Love also began an acting career, playing Danny Glover's wife in the four Lethal Weapon movies, and appeared on Broadway in Grease and in the short-lived musical adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie. Love starred as Motormouth Maybelle in Broadway's Hairspray until April, 2008. [edit] Recent TV performancesShe was a special guest on the December 17, 2005, broadcast of Saturday Night Live, singing "White Christmas" with the SNL band and providing the vocals for a Robert Smigel cartoon, "Christmastime for the Jews". She was the musical guest on Late Show with David Letterman on May 7, 2007, performing "River Deep-Mountain High". Love released the holiday collection "It's Christmas, Of Course", featuring her versions of classic yuletide tunes from the '70s and '80s, on October 2, 2007. She continues to do a Christmas show every year in New York City, which is always capped by "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." She originally recorded the song in 1963 for the album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. Love has also performed the song every year since 1986 on the last episode of the Late Show with David Letterman before Christmas. The song is always performed with Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra, with the band being augmented by additional strings and other instruments, as well as a choir. Letterman has stated that the annual performance is his favorite part of Christmas. Due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, Love was unable to perform on the Letterman show in 2007;[1] instead a repeat of her 2006 performance was shown. Dino Kartsonakis' TBN show featured Love singing "It Is Well With My Soul" and "Sweet Hour of Prayer" on 30 June 2009. She also performed with Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band in November 2009 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden. [edit] Rock and Roll Hall of FameOn September 23rd, 2009, She was named as one of the 12 finalists for 2010 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. [edit] US Singles
Incomplete list of recordings.
[edit] Album Releases
[edit] References[edit] External links
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