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The End of an Era?

Well, the day finally came.

Last night marked Darlene Love’s 28th consecutive and final performance of ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ on the David Letterman Show, due to Letterman’s retirement next year.

Based in Europe, as I am, I had to wait until this morning before I could catch the performance via Youtube. As always, Darlene turns in a powerhouse vocal and the Paul Shaffer-led backing is as majestic and elaborate as we’ve come to expect. Enjoy!

A fitting end to what has become a cherished Holiday tradition for all of us? Seeing that Stephen Colbert takes over the Late Show after Letterman, he’d be wise to persuade Darlene and Paul to continue the tradition each December. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Incidentally, I just noticed this cool clip of Paul & co. having fun with ‘You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling’ on the Late Show youtube channel. Awesome!

Really, Paul Shaffer should take this concept on the road or at least just make a big concert in New York bringing together his band with Darlene and other former Philles artists. He could call it the ‘Wall of Sound Revue’ or something like that.

Can you imagine that? A big show at Radio City Music Hall or Carnegie Hall? Paul Shaffer and band playing all our beloved Philles classics with Darlene Love, Ronnie Spector, LaLa Brooks, Bill Medley, Tina Turner etc joining on stage? And you could have relevant guest spots like Bruce Springsteen and Steven van Zandt. That show would be the stuff of legends! Oh well, we can dream, can’t we?

There’s been a lot of press about this final performance. Here’s a nice write-up from the New York Times to end this blog post with:

LaLa on Letterman

You may have seen this already, but if not enjoy this great segment from last night’s David Letterman show; it’s LaLa Brooks getting immensed in the Paul Shaffer Wall of Sound.

Super performance by LaLa and boy, does Shaffer prove he has the Wall of Sound down pat or what? But of course we knew that already. The only thing missing is the thick, muddy reverb of Gold Star Studios but other than that, this is perfect!

Next up – Darlene Love, scheduled for her last ever performance of ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home’ on December 19th. Surely, Shaffer must have something extra-special up his sleeve for that occasion?