What’s next? “A Paul Shaffer-Darlene Love Christmas show somewhere in New York. I’m sure it would sell out”
When David Letterman ends his 30-plus-year late-night career in 2015, his smirking wit won’t be the only thing missing from television — it will also mark the end of an annual holiday TV tradition.
Every year since 1986, Darlene Love has performed her 1963 girl group classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on the last episode of Late Show With David Letterman before Christmas. In a recent interview with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Billboard asked Love if she would consider moving the annual performance to a different late night show.
She laughed and shook her head.
“This would be my 28th year in a row,” Love said, speaking to Billboard backstage at a charity concert honoring Joan Jett. “They never told me not to, but it was an unspoken thing. They couldn’t ask me not to sing ‘Christmas (Baby)’ on another show, but after 10 years, then 15 years, of doing this one song on this one show, I felt I had an obligation to be true to them.”
