December 19, 2014, marked the end of an era. It was Darlene Love’s last performance of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on the David Letterman show.
Since her first performance of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on the Letterman show in 1986, it has become a Late Show tradition. On the last live episode before the holidays, Love performs the Phil Spector Christmas tune together with the Late Show’s house band, which is of course headed up by Paul Schaffer. Each year the band is augmented with lots of other performers.
This year’s performance by Darlene Love was amazing. Her rendition of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” always sends chills down my spine. The live recreation of Spector’s Wall Of Sound was also remarkable.
There was however, one thing that was in glaring contrast to the amazing performance given by Darlene Love: the poorly-miked baritone sax solo, and the same player’s work opposite her vocals during the finale.
I don’t think I’m just being critical. This was a big deal. This was a huge performance. Couldn’t they have upped the mike settings on the bari sax just a bit? Would have really changed the overall Wall Of Sound mix that much?
The bari sax player always has to work very hard in R&B and rock solos to cut through and be heard. In Wall Of Sound productions, the bari sax was always under-miked. That said, in this case the bari sax player was even more under-miked than normal.
This performance of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love was amazing. Just think how much better if could have been, had we actually been able to hear the baritone sax player.
And do you think the director could have shown the bari player some love with maybe a shot of him during is featured solo? SMH
Absolutely Bill. The bari player seems to have been all but forgotten a lot during the performance… Oh, like his volume was totally forgotten during the finale.
As a bari player this kind of stuff really just frustrates the hell out of me. I know how much I put into solos, and then to have them not miked properly, or sometimes at all—hey, it’s happened—makes it seem like my work is not valued.
Like I said, this was a big deal. It was an enormous audience, and will live forever on YouTube and the likes.