The Best Christmas Song Was Written by a Murderer
A lot of beautiful classic rock songs have disturbing backstories. For example, the best Christmas song of all time was written by a murderer. That hasn’t stopped the song from becoming a hit on the charts recently.
1 Christmas song was written by the most important producer of the 1960s
One of the most important musicians of the rock ‘n’ roll era was Phil Spector. In the early 1960s, he made a name for himself producing girl group songs like The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and The Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron.” He was known for productions that were so layered you could not pick out any individual instruments. This is known as the “Wall of Sound” technique. After girl groups went out of style, Spector went on to produce classic albums like The Beatles’ Let It Be, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, and John Lennon’s Imagine. His musical legacy cannot be overstated.
One of his best works wasn’t performed by a Beatle or a girl group. In 1963, he produced Darlene Love’s single “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” The song has a beautiful melody, a soaring vocal performance, and a moving emotional core. It’s a great song and it clearly inspired Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
However, Spector had a dark side. The Encyclopedia Britannica says he was charged with the 2003 murder of movie star Lana Clarkson. In 2009, he was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison. His death in 2021 inspired both praise and scorn.
Darlene Love speaks out on ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’
During an interview with Burklee Online, Love discussed her signature track — which Spector wrote with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. “When I first heard it, we were recording the Christmas album, and then Ellie and Jeff had written this song,” she said. “They were a little leery of putting out a brand new Christmas song. It wasn’t like ‘Marshmallow World’ or ‘Silent Night’ or any of those. This was brand spanking new, and I was like, I don’t know about doing a song that’s not already Christmas. But Phil was determined. He said, ‘It’s a great song, you’ve got to hear it.’ They actually played the song for me over the phone.”
Love recalled that the tune was originally sketchy. “From New York. It wasn’t nothin’ on it, it was just a demo,” he said. “Ellie singing and Jeff playing. So it was a demo, so you really couldn’t feel what it was all about. But once I heard the song, I said, ‘Wow, this is great.’ I thought from the time I heard it, and I really heard it good before I recorded it. I thought it was going to be a great song.”
The song became more relevant in recent years
The dark truth behind “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” hasn’t stopped it from being popular. In 2018, 55 years after its release, the track peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 staying on the chart for 22 weeks. It’s the most popular song of Love’s career.
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” appeared on the album A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records, which has been rereleased under the name A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. That album includes many versions of Christmas standards that still regularly appear on the radio, such as The Ronettes’ “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” and The Crystals’ “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Spector has a great musical legacy — but his personal life was heinous.
