Interview with Darlene Love
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Darlene Love
Los Angeles singer who sang lead on He's a Rebel and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) and sang backup for Elvis Presley with The Blossoms. She appeared in the Lethal Weapon films and 20 Feet from Stardom.
Source: Berklee Online on YouTube
These answers are taken from Darlene Love on Phil Spector, Elvis, ‘20 Feet from Stardom’ | Episode 26 | Music Is My Life Podcast on Berklee Online's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What was your very first experience with singing?
Early days of my church, it's probably between ages of 10 and 15. But even at that time, I didn't really think that I had this great voice, because when you grow up in church, people have the habit of saying, "Don't get yourself too puffed up. You just got to be singing for the glory of God. Let Him lead you."
My father was placed in San Antonio, Texas, for five years, and then we returned back to California and he didn't have a church. So a lot of my friends were going to one of the biggest Baptist churches in Los Angeles, and my father let us go over there because they had a great choir. Now, that's when I really thought I could sing, because I was with these voices. There were like 75 voices in this choir, and I was one of the youngest members, and the director of the choir told me I had a great voice and I should try to start singing solos with the choir. I worked with her for a couple of weeks, and then the next week on a Sunday morning, I was singing solo. And I think that was when I realized I really do have a gift, and I need to use it, and not just in church.
When did you start singing?
The Blossoms heard me sing a solo at church, and they asked me if I would like to be in their group, because they were looking for another singer and they thought that I would probably fit in. Well, of course, I had to ask my mother and father if I could sing in a rock and roll group. My mother and father got to know their parents, and we were all really good friends by then. So I was able to go out and sing with The Blossoms. I had to call when we got where we were going, and I had to call when we were on our way back home. They were really strict about that.
It was amazing that the church people are the ones that had their objections. My father said, "Well, if her mother and I feel that she can do it, there's nothing wrong with it. Music is music." I think they knew that I had a gift, and that one way or another I was going to use it. So I think they figured they should just be in the middle of this. Because I was only like 15 years old. I really didn't start being able to do it full time until I graduated from high school.
What drew you to a career as a singer?
At home, rock and roll and rhythm and blues were not allowed to be played in our house, only gospel music. The only way I got to hear secular music was to go to my girlfriend's house. But my leading was actually to gospel music, because I heard it over the years. I wanted to sing like Marian Anderson, the great singer. That's who I wanted to sing like. And then I figured that road was a hard road, so I had to figure another way. So I went to rock and roll.
I believe that my voice is a gift from God, and God meant for me to use it everywhere. He's let my light shine all over the place, and the only way I can do that is go out into the world and let my light so shine. And I have enjoyed it. I think that's why I really do it, because I believe that my voice is a gift from God and that I am supposed to use it, and that's what I've been doing.
I love rock and roll, I love rhythm and blues, but my first choice today is still gospel music.
What do you enjoy most about singing?
Christmas songs are so full of life. When we start singing Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), it can be during a time when a loved one is far away, or away for Christmas, away from home, in the war or whatever. That song means something to everybody that hears it. So you get really joyful when you're singing.
I wish I could sing it all year, but I tell my audience all the time, "If I sang it all year, you guys wouldn't feel what you do when you hear me sing it at Christmas time." When I sing it at Christmas time, I have so much joy singing that song.
I'm doing what I love to do, pleasing people and taking care of myself physically, so I can do it.
What was a great moment for you as a singer?
I remember the recording of that song more than I do any other song, because we all learned it at the same time. It was August, about 103, 105 degrees. Here we are in the recording studio recording Christmas songs. Phil made it so cold, we actually had to keep sweaters on in the room. You would have thought it was Christmas in that recording studio, because every time we would finish one of the songs, everybody would be on a high.
I remember it took hours to do it, because Phil wanted it to be perfect. On the last take of that session, Leon Russell was on piano. I don't know if you can really hear it like I hear it, how he's playing that piano. The last take of the night, it was some big orchestrated number, and he was zoned. He was gone. He played so much at the end of the record. Even when Phil said, "Okay, take," everybody was still playing. They didn't stop. I don't think we could do it any better than this. Phil had a habit back then of keeping the talkback buttons on, so we could always hear what he was saying. That last take, everybody in that room knew that was the take. It was amazing.
How did your career as a singer unfold?
We had been doing background for four or five years before I met Phil. Phil was rushing to record He's a Rebel. The Crystals were 13 and 14 years of age, and their parents wouldn't allow them to come to Los Angeles. So Lester Sill introduced us to Phil and said, "Well, I think Darlene can do it." I said, "Sure, I can do it, but you've got to pay me."
I worked with Dionne Warwick for 10 years, and I was out there with Tom Jones and Elvis, and I really was tired. I wanted to go home and be with my family. Then I tried to get back into doing background work, which was all gone by then. When I couldn't find anything to do, I just started doing housework. I was cleaning this lady's bathroom during the holiday season, and I heard Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) playing on her radio. From that day: I don't know how I'm going to do it, Lord, but I'm going to get out there and I'm going to sing, some way, somehow.
I went down to the Carnival cruise ship in San Pedro with my pictures and my records, and they hired me right on the spot. Then I did the Lethal Weapon movie and started doing the David Letterman Show, and that gave me a lot of work.
What advice do you have for new singers?
The one thing I learned to do, long before I went to a doctor, was vocal rest. I found out when I stopped talking or singing or using my voice, my voice would come back very, very clear the next day. And that's because, as the doctor told me, talking on your vocal cords is actually harder than singing on your vocal cords, because you don't prepare your voice to talk. The first thing you do in the morning: "Hey kids, get up, let's go to school." You haven't given your voice time to wake up yet.
I never drink ice water. I drink room temperature water, and a lot of tea, and vocal rest is the best healing you can do for your voice. I take a lot of vitamin C. My doctor said, "Force water." Like 14 glasses of water. I never really was a heavy drinker. I smoked for 25 years, but I also stopped 25 years ago. It sounds too simple to be true, but the simple things usually work.
We got invited to a lot of parties, because that's what entertainers do. They party, party, party, and you see them the next day and they have no voice. On Broadway, doing eight shows a week, in three years I missed three shows.
Think about a demanding director, producer or music director. What made them difficult, and how did you work with them successfully?
Phil always had guns in the studio, and he was always putting them in his pocket and taking them out and flipping them around. I was the only one that would leave the session, because I would say, "Listen, if he is going to shoot somebody, it ain't going to be me." We had like 15 or 20 musicians in the studio while he was doing this. If the gun dropped and went off, guess what? So if he had a gun, I would make him take it out to the car. Remove the gun or I'm going to remove myself. That was the only way I would record with him, and finally he just stopped bringing it into our sessions.
The last song I recorded for him, he was acting such a fool in the recording session. Cher was in the studio, some of the Beatles were in the studio, and he was just determined to make me sing over and over again, which was something I never had to do for Phil, because I knew the song when I went in. I knew he was just trying to show off. After a couple hours, I finally just took my earphones off, put them on the chair, got my coat and walked out.
I probably was one of the only people who wasn't afraid of him. People that threaten you a lot of times, they just have a big mouth.
Has your career as a singer progressed the way you expected?
I told Phil, "Phil, you didn't make my career. I had one before I met you, and I was happy singing background." So he couldn't stop me from singing background, even though he tried. I was making just as much money, if not more, singing background, because as a backup singer you get up, you go to work, you work for five or six hours, you come back home and sleep in your own bed. You have to buy no clothes, no makeup, none of that stuff you have to do when you're out on the road.
I've never been in my life a desperate person. I would love to have a big smash record, but it's not a lifelong "Oh my God, if I don't have it, I will die." I've never had that kind of desire, ever. I wanted to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but if I don't get in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, life goes on. That's the way I've always felt.
All the songs that I really loved did nothing. So I just stopped trying to say what is what and just let it handle itself.
Of all the roles, songs and shows you have done, which is your favorite?
Ellie and Jeff had written this song, and they were a little leery of putting out a brand new Christmas song. It wasn't like Marshmallow World or Silent Night. This was brand spanking new. But Phil was determined. He said it's a great song, you got to hear it, and they actually played the song for me over the phone from New York. It was just a demo, Ellie singing and Jeff playing. But once I heard the song, I said, "Wow, this is great." I thought it was going to be a great song.
Number one, it was written for me, and number two, it's still today one of the biggest selling Christmas songs on the planet. Which is amazing to me, that I produced something with a producer, and with singers and instruments, and made a song that great. Only great songs last that long. And a lot of people have recorded that song. That lets you know how great a song is. Big stars don't record nobody else's songs unless they're great.
My favorite cover is actually Mariah Carey, because it sounds just like my version. It sounds so much alike, her fans think she is the original recorder of that song. Come on, Mariah, you got your own Christmas song. Let me have mine.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your credits.
Our first recording session with The Blossoms was with Jimmy Dean. Not James Dean the actor: Jimmy Dean. We were so nervous, because we had never sung on a session before, and the guy that was leading us, our vocal coach and arranger, was nervous too. It was his first session and ours. After maybe an hour into the session the fear left. Those were the days when the band, the background singers and the lead singers did everything at one time.
We met Sam Cooke because his manager was a friend of our manager. Of course, we were hysterical, because we were in love with Sam Cooke. The first session we did with Sam was Everybody Likes to Cha Cha Cha. Then we did Chain Gang. Nobody knows there's women on it, but our voices are on that record. We sweetened a lot of records.
And my husband and I have been married for 34 years. I met him on the cruise ship. He was the chief steward. I dragged him off the ship. I said, "Come on, go with me."
Darlene Love's Full Biography
Born Darlene Wright in Los Angeles in 1941, she began her career as lead singer with the vocal trio, The Blossoms. After a spell as regulars on ABC TV's variety show Shindig! (1964) in the early 60s, the trio went on to sing backup on a variety of Elvis Presley recordings, and even backed him on his 1968 NBC-TV special Elvis: The Comeback Special (1968). For a while, they backed Tom Jones during some of his Las Vegas shows. The Blossoms have the rare distinction of recording a number one hit without ever receiving any credit. Years before the advent of Milli Vanilli, Darlene Love, Fanita James and Gracie Nitzsche sang vocals on the Gene Pitney-penned song "He's a Rebel" that was championed as The Crystals' first (and only) No. 1 US hit. Because of confounding logistics, record producer Phil Spector had to use The Blossoms because The Crystals were on the wrong coast of the US at the time. And since he was up against the clock in L.A. attempting to get his production on the airwaves before the Vikki Carr version, he had no choice. Love also sang vocals on the Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans top twenty hit "Zip-a-Dee Doo Dah".