Darlene Love appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman in 1986 to sing her holiday classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” For the next 28 years, Love returned every December to sing the song, which became a longstanding tradition. It’s nice when good traditions stick! There are too many bad and unworthy traditions out there.
This week, Love and Letterman reunited once again to spread some holiday cheer, even though “Baby Please Come Home” is actually a pretty depressing song. But we can overlook that, just like we overlook Letterman’s beard.
Love joined Paul Shaffer, Letterman’s bandleader, for a jolly rendition of the Christmas classic, and Letterman thanked the singer for her commitment to the cause. “Thank you for your time and generosity over the years.” Letterman said. “It became more than the event itself. It was meaningful and emotional,” he added.
Shaffer told Vanity Fair in 2014 that the tradition was actually Letterman’s idea. “It must have been Dave Letterman himself who said, ‘Let’s do it again,'” Shaffer explained, adding that other performances in the past were not as well-received. “Year after year, we’ve tried to do different things. We had a naval choir once, we had a children’s choir, we had gospel. But the best thing to do, I find, is to just get the best people we can, and let Darlene wail and that’s what I’m looking for.”
It seemed to work out well enough that they asked her back for another performance all these years later. Will the baby ever come home?! You can check out the performance above.
