From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Fri Jul 26, 2002  1:10 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Darlene Love
 
DARLENE LOVE

Born Darlene Wright, 26 July 1941, Los Angeles, California

Darlene Love has one of the greatest voices in pop music, yet her moment
in the sun lasted only 15 months, from September 1962 to December 1963.
During this short period she had no less than eight chart hits (including a
number one), all produced by Phil Spector and released on his Philles label.
However, only three of these were under her own name. In two cases credit
went to the Crystals, and in three other cases the name on the label read
Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans. Spector didn't care too much whose name
was on the label, as long as his own name was there.
After 1963 : just one tiny Christmas hit in 1993. Life is cruel sometimes.

Darlene joined an all-female vocal group, The Blossoms (formerly the Dreamers)
in 1958. The Blossoms recorded as a quartet for Capitol Records, 1958-60 and
then as a trio (Darlene, Fanita James and Gloria Jones) for Challenge and Okeh
Records. Their only hit (# 79) was "Son-in-Law" in 1961, an answer song to Ernie
K-Doe's big hit "Mother In Law". They also did backup singing in Los Angeles,
supporting Bobby Day ("Rockin' Robin"), James Darren ("Goodbye Cruel World"),
Bobby "Boris" Pickett ("Monster Mash") and many others. The Rebelettes who
sang on "Dance With the Guitar Man" by Duane Eddy were in fact the Blossoms.
During the sixties they were regulars on TV's "Shindig" and toured with Elvis in

the late sixties and early seventies.

Darlene was brought to Phil Spector's attention by his partner Lester Sill when
he
was looking for a lead singer for "He's a Rebel" which was to be rush-released
under the Crystals' name. When Darlene was asked if she knew about this she
said "So what? The man just paid me triple scale." She figured that it was a
cute song, but it was probably going nowhere. After it went to # 1, Darlene
wanted
her own name (or rather her new name - Spector came up with the name Darlene
Love in January 1963) on the label for her next release, "He's Sure The Boy I
Love".
Spector promised her this, but again the Crystals' name came to decorate the
label. Then he allowed her five singles of her own, of which "The Boy I'm Gonna
Marry" and "Wait Till My Bobby Gets Home" went Top 40. She also sang on the
ill-fated Phil Spector's Christmas Album, which was released on November 22,
1963, the day of the assassination of President Kennedy. Later it would find the
recognition it deserved.
Success kept eluding Darlene and in the early eighties she had to supplement her
meagre musical income by cleaning houses in Beverly Hills. Since then she made
a live comeback LP, starred in the off-Broadway show "Leader Of The Pack" and
played Danny Glover's wife in all the "Lethal Weapon" films. She's back on
track.

Autobiography: Darlene Love with Rob Hoerburger, My Name Is Love : The Darlene
Love Story. New York : Morrow, 1998. Recommended.
Official website: http://www.darlenelove.com
CD : The Best Of Darlene Love (EMI/Phil Spector Records), 15 Philles tracks.
There is an extended "Best Of Darlene Love" (29 tracks) on the Belgian Marginal
label (MAR 074), released in 1997, with the same pic cover. Apart from the 15
tracks
on the 1992 CD, this collection includes her Christmas recordings, some
post-Philles
recordings and a few selected Blossoms tracks.