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More than any other pop star of the last 30 years, Mariah Carey has become synonymous with Christmas songs. She once did her own version of the best Yuletide song of the 1960s. The singer of the original tune didn’t have a favorable view of Carey’s cover at first.

1 singer felt like Mariah Carey was stealing her Christmas song

Darlene Love is the sort of singer who you’ve heard — even if you don’t know her by name. She sang the lead vocals on The Crystals’ hit songs “He’s a Rebel” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love.” She was also one of the backup singers in Elvis Presley’s ’68 Comeback Special. Today, she is most known for her classic Christmas tune “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” a seasonal favorite produced by the legendary Phil Spector.

During an interview with Burklee Online, Love was asked to name her favorite cover of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” “I think it’s actually Mariah Carey because it sounds just like my version,” she revealed. “It really does. I don’t mean that she sounds like me, I was saying that it sounds my version, and her version sounds almost just alike. Matter of fact, it sounds so much alike, her fans think she is the original recorder of that song.”

Initially, Love was not a fan of the cover. “When I heard that, I went, ‘Oh, come on, Mariah, you got your own Christmas song,'” she recalled. “Let me have mine.” Love was likely referring to Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which appeared on Merry Christmas, the same album as Carey’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).”

Darlene Love discussed the impact of her signature song

Love discussed the impact of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” “That song means something to everybody that hears it,” she said. “So you get really joyful when you’re singing it also. 

“You would have thought it was Christmas in that recording studio ’cause every time we would finish doing one of the songs, everybody would be on a high,” the singer added. “‘Wow, that was great,’ and when we got ready to do ‘Christmas Baby,’ well, you want to talk about joy, joy, joy and then think about that that song was recorded over 50 years ago.”

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How Darlene Love’s ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ compared to Mariah Carey’s

Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” was first released in 1963. It peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018. So far, the track has spent 22 weeks on the chart. 

Carey’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” gets played on the radio each December, but it has not charted on the Billboard Hot 100 so far. The tune appeared on the album Merry Christmas. That record reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 128 weeks. It’s the second biggest album of Carey’s career after Music Box. In fact, Merry Christmas was so popular it spawned a sequel called Merry Christmas II You. The record climbed to No. 4 and charted for 15 weeks.

Carey’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” is great — but it will never live up to the perfection of the original.

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