| In 1962, Darlene received a call from Lester
Sill ( a man who the Blossoms had done session work before for), who at the time was in
partnership with Phil Spector. He created the Philles label, named after the Phil's first
name (PHIL) and the first three letters of Lester Still first name (LES), (
Philles). Darlene would record " He's A Rebel" (originally recorded by Vicky
Carr) but wouldn't get name credit for it. "He's A Rebel", was under the name
The Crystals because of Phil Spector's rushing to beat the Vicky Carr version and not
having the time to change the group name. " He's A Rebel" went to No 1 on the
Pop charts and sold a million copies !! That late year in 1962, while
the Cuban Missile Crisis was going on in the news,Darlene was in competition with herself
because a few weeks before, " Monster Mash" the song she sang background too,
had also gone to No 1 as well !!!! Darlene recorded yet another song for Phil Spector
entitled, "He's Sure The Boy I Love" but was christened Darlene Love instead of
Darlene Wright. Darlene would continue to record more future classics for the Philles
label as Darlene Love such as," Today I Met The Boy I'm Going To Marry", Wait
Till My Bobby Gets Home"," A Fine Fine Boy", and as a member of Bobby Soxx
& The Blue Jeans, " Zip-A DeeDoo-Dah", " Not Too Young To Get
Married", and as The Crystals, " Da Doo Run Run". Member Gloria
Jones had about this time left the group and was replaced by Grazie Nitzche wife of
Philles label arranger Jack Nitzche. Phil Spector arranged in the summer of 1963 for the
artists to come together and record a LP of Christmas tunes. He released it in late
November of 1963 entitled, " A Christmas Gift For You, from Phil Spector",
with a gorgeous Darlene Love (along with other labelmates as the The Crystals, The
Ronettes and Bobby Soxx & The Blue Jeans) in a yellow top with her arms stretching out
her name in dark green letters. I consider this Christmas LP an absolute masterpiece !!
The Blossoms would continue to record and make appearances though out the
country and even take part in a masterpiece concert film called, " The T.A.M.I
Show" in 1964. During this same year, Darlene would receive a phone call from a
British producer named Jack Good, to do a show in the U.S. to model after the hit show in
England, " Ready Steady, Go", called "Shindig". He wanted the
Blossoms to be regulars on the show. Around this time, Grazia Nitzche was replaced by Jean
King. The show was aired on Sept of 1964 and cancelled after two seasons in 1966.
Afterwards, the Blossoms continued sessions work for Righteous Bros., Johnny Rivers, The
Beach Boys, The Mamas & Papas,and even Peggy Lipton, who of course gained later fame
as Julie on the ABC-Tv series "The Mod Squad" in 1968. They signed with Frank
Sinatra's label Reprise to record a number of songs including the hit, " Good Good
Lovin", hitting No 45 on the R&B charts in Dec of 1967. In late 1966, they would
give ole blue eyes a hand and sing background to his hit, " That's Life" hitting
No 25 in Jan 1967. The Blossoms would tour with Nancy Sinatra during the year of
1967.
In 1968, Darlene and the group would also take part in Elvis
Presley's comeback special, aired on Dec 3, 1968 on NBC and have a cameo role as
background singers in his 1969 movie, "Change of Habit" co-starring Mary Tyler
Moore, Barbara McNair and Bill Elliot ( former husband of Dionne Warwick). Darlene
left the Blossoms in the early 70's to pursue a solo career. Thought the 70's and 80's,
Darlene laid background work to dozens and dozens of artists like, Dionne Warwick,
Robert John, Kim Carnes, Stanley Clarke, Aretha Franklin, and Luther Vandross. She became
a member of The Bottom Line Repertory Company in NY and appeared in plays such
as," Leader of The Pack" in 1985,and in London, " Carrie". Darlene
also played opposite of Danny Glover's wife in three versions of the No 1 movie,
"Lethal Weapon".
I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Love backstage at the Bottom Line in 1995, in NY, after
her brillant performance for a show that she put together and toured around the world,
about her life as a session singer entitled, "Darlene Love, Portrait Of A
Singer". Along with my friend Bruce Lennon, who like myself is a big Darlene Love
fan, told me about the show and we went one night. Along with meeting Darlene, I met yet
another gentleman who sang background for the show named, Dennis Alston Ray. He's cousin
of two legendary artists, Shirley Alston lead singer of The Shirelles and Gerald Alston
lead singer of The Manhattans. Dennis is a very talented singer who's done numerous
background work for Chubby Checker and so forth, had his own show in 1996 called, "
Thanks For The Memories, Mr Soul", that was in tribute to his favourite singer and
idol Sam Cooke.
What a show that was !!!!! Dennis tore it up that night !!!!!!
In 1988 there would be a 25th anniversary reunion with former
Phil Spector labelmates Ronnie Spector and the late Sonny Bono at the Bottom Line. In
1995, Darlene would honoured at the R&B Foundation Pioneer Awards ceremony. Darlene
till this day continues to grace us with her wonderful talent by touring throughout the
country and around the world. She is happily married to her husband Alton of almost now 16
years and is the mother to three grown sons and the grandmother of two beautiful
grandsons. Darlene Love's talent is very much underrated and her contribution to the world
of music is astonishing !!!! She deserve a lot more credit than she receives.
Darlene, your star will always continue to shine bright upon us
though the galaxy of musical milky way.
Thank you so much for lending your talent and voice for so
many...........but yet not so few...............................
Enjoy !!!!!!!
Mike Boone
(Chancellor of Soul) |
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