DARLENE LOVE: I KNOW WHERE I’VE BEEN
(The Toronto International Film Festival (or TIFF) runs September 10-20 and HtN has boots on the ground covering all the best indie films they have to offer. Check out Chris Reeds’s Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been movie review from the fest! Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)
It’s a stretch to claim that “Darlene Love is the greatest singer no one has heard of,” as one interviewee does in the new documentary Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, but that doesn’t take away from the fact she is deserving of all the praise we can give her. One of the stars of Morgan Neville’s Oscar-winning film 20 Feet from Stardom, Love has also been dubbed the “Queen of Christmas” by none other than Mariah Carey and David Letterman, thanks to her 1963 hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” She has a big voice and a big heart and, fortunately, for quite a while now a pretty large following. And yet, at one time, she was indeed that singer whose sound everyone knew without realizing who she was.
There is a wealth of talent in director Barry Avrich’s tribute to Love, and they shower her with admiration and affection. Beyond Carey and Letterman, we hear from Cher, Andra Day, Paul Shaffer, Bruce Springsteen, and Dionne Warwick, among others. Love’s three sons are here, as well, to attest to the brilliance of mom (despite a career that often took her away from them). Everyone knows where she’s been, and how she got to where she is today.
Born Darlene Wright in 1941 in Los Angeles, the daughter of a minister, Love grew up in the church and would later bring that immersion in gospel music to her 1960s coming-of-rock-&-roll age. She had the great misfortune to sign a deal with producer Phil Spector, who gave her a new last name and very little freedom. As he built up a reputation with his famous “Wall of Sound,” he also proved extremely controlling and almost never allowed Love to openly record as herself (the aforementioned Christmas song being the exception that proved the rule).
Some of the big hits that feature Love’s vocals (backing or lead, no matter what the album credits might indicate) were The Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love,” Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett’s “The Monster Mash,” The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” and Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life.” She came up through high school with a group of her own, The Blossoms, but then got lost in the nightmare of Spector’s heavy thumb. Fortunately, this didn’t stop her from landing a gig on the mid-1960s TV show “Shindig!,” but she would eventually find herself stuck in a second Spector contract that left her with very few options.
After having to work as a house-cleaner to make ends meet, Love resurfaced in the 1980s in the off-Broadway musical “Leader of the Pack,” where her castmate Shaffer would become a fan and bring her to the attention of Letterman, who then brought her on his show every year to sing her Christmas hit. She also played Danny Glover’s wife, Trish Murtaugh, in the Lethal Weapon films, and has never looked back, finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. It’s a very happy ending to an initially challenging story. And it’s all here, in this fully enjoyable ode to Darlene Love’s greatness. The spotlight is on her for good.
– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)
