It Was 105 Degrees When ‘A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector’ Was Recorded
In 1963, Phil Spector got his team of singers and musicians together to record one of the most famous Christmas albums in music history, A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector. However, they didn’t record the festive album on a chilly December day.
Darlene Love said she and the band were enthusiastic about recording ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’
On the Music Is My Life podcast, Darlene Love explained that she and her band enthusiastically recorded “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).”
“That song means something to everybody that hears it,” Love said. “You would have thought it was Christmas in that recording studio because every time, we would finish doing one of the songs, everybody would be like on a high. ‘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 song was recorded over 50 years ago.”
Love said she remembers the recording process of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” well. “We all learned it at the same time,” she said. “The musicians had the-the arranger had arranged the song because we had to get it ready for the album, and Phil wanted to put the album out.
“He wanted to put it out in early October, November. So he was pressed to get all the songs done on that one. I remember it took hours to do it because Phil wanted it to be perfect. I remember the last take of that session. Leon Russell was on piano.
“I don’t know if you can really hear like I hear, how he’s playing that piano. The last take of the night, he was playing like he was playing a contralto, like it was some big orchestrated number. He was like zoned, he was gone.
“He played so much at the end of the record. Even when Phil said, ‘OK, take,’ everybody was still playing. They didn’t stop. Lenon, actually, I don’t know if he did it by accident, or he just was fooling around, but played himself off the piano. I kept saying, ‘Phil, that’s it. I don’t think we can do it no better than this.'”
That last take appeared on A Christmas Gift For You.
The singers and musicians recorded ‘A Christmas Gift For You’ during a heat wave
Love explained that they all recorded A Christmas Gift For You during a heat wave. The singer explained, “It was a heat wave going on. It was in August, it was about 103, 105 degrees. It was crazy. Here we are, in the recording studio, recording Christmas songs.
Music Is My Life wondered how she and the other singers and musicians got in the mood. Love replied, “Well, Phil made it so cold, we actually had to keep sweaters on in the room. It was so cold. It didn’t take long to really get into the mood of singing Christmas songs because they’re so joyful. Christmas songs are so full of life.”
‘A Christmas Gift For You’ came out the same day of a national tragedy
According to Parade, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and A Christmas Gift For You had the “unfortunate fate” of coming out on the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Out of respect for the president, Spector temporarily pulled the single and album from stores.
The president’s assassination delayed the album a whole year. “Phil didn’t put it out until next Christmas,” she said. “That was the year he was assassinated. Everybody was in a slump, and nobody wanted to be joyful, or be put in a good mood, so Phil just decided to wait until the following year to put it out.
“We had to wait on it, and I made Phil give me a copy of it, the whole record. So, he gave me a copy of it, and promised that I wouldn’t let anybody hear it… I couldn’t wait to have that record put out.”
According to Parade, the record “left no mark until 1972, when the full album started to gain traction through a reissue.” Now A Christmas Gift For You is a classic Christmas album.
