Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Through the mid-'60s, Phil Spector was focused on singles, with his definition of an album being "two hits and 10 pieces of junk." He took a different approach, however, when he recorded a Christmas album in 1963, putting a great deal of effort into every track. The only original song on the album was Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," which he wrote with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. Spector issued the song as a single when the album came out, but unfortunately this was the same day US President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. This seriously dampened the holiday mood; the single, as well as the album, were withdrawn. "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" lay dormant throughout the '60s and '70s, but in the '80s, covers and media uses helped introduce the song to a new audience, and radio stations started adding it to their holiday playlists. It eventually became a Christmas classic, but it took decades.

Being an astute businessman, Phil Spector had Darlene Love re-record this song as "Johnny Please Come Home," and released it shortly after Christmas in 1963. The song had the same music and theme, but the lyrics were changed to remove the Christmas references.

Despite the rousing production, the lyric of this song is rather doleful, as the singer can't get into the Christmas spirit without her loved one. Darlene Love, however, calls it "a joyful song." She said in The New York Times: "When I'm singing it, I'm telling everybody to come home to their loved ones. I'm inviting families to get back together again. This is the time to do it."