For Darlene Love, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Love, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer whose iconic voice has been synonymous with the holiday season for more than 60 years, returns to the road for her “Love for the Holidays Tour,” with dates including Friday, Dec. 19 at the Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey and Sunday, Dec. 21 at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey.
It’s all part of a season that includes the 12-city tour that kicks off Friday, Nov. 28 at the Fox Tuscon Theatre, the day after she’ll be on the other side of the country for a highly anticipated appearance in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, where she’ll be on the Balsam Hill float performing her hit holiday classic, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).”
Since her voice was the signature sound on the iconic A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector LP in 1963, Love has brought undeniably needed holiday cheer to generations of listeners.
“It is such a thing to be able to know that I’m actually touching people, families, because that’s what’s so important today, family members,” Love told The Pop Break. “Because with families today, we’re kind of spread out all over the country. Like, my family is in California, but I can talk to them through my music. And I do that with everybody during the holidays, which is the time of the year when everybody is doing what they’re supposed to do, for whatever reason – you know, the giving, the smiles you get from putting them on peoples’ faces. And that’s a good time for me, because it’s the time of the year where I am really with people who I want to be with, my fans, and they give all that love back to me.”
As if a dozen shows and a parade weren’t enough, the day before her New Jersey engagements love will return to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, Dec. 18 to perform both “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” from “A Christmas Gift For You” and the Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) soundtrack standout “All Alone on Christmas” with the accompaniment of the latter song’s composer, E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt, as well as Van Zandt’s band The Disciples of Soul and longtime David Letterman bandleader and Love supporter Paul Shaffer.
It’s just the latest chapter in a long friendship between Love and the E Street Band that’s included such highlights as Love and Bruce Springsteen both appearing at the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park in October for Van Zandt’s birthday benefit concert, Love being inducted by Springsteen as part of the inaugural class of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music’s American Music Honors in 2023 and Love being backed by Springsteen and the E Street Band in 2009 during the concerts celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
“They surprise me all the time, which is so heartwarming for me, because they call me when they want to do these great things and it’s just so humbling for me to be in their presence because they’re so regular,” Love said of Springsteen and Van Zandt. “You know, regular rock ’n’ roll people, which you can’t find a whole lot of times. They’re just regular with me; I’ve been around a lot of entertainers over the course of my career and Bruce and Stevie are two of the mega-stars in the business that just act just like regular people.”
It’s been a decade since Love and Van Zandt joined forces for the stellar Introducing Darlene Love LP in 2015, and Love doesn’t rule out a return to the studio for the duo – of course, with a Christmas twist.
“I never know,” she said. “Stevie is always (saying), ‘We’ve got to get back in the studio.’ I think he wants to do a Christmas album, which would be fantastic, because I don’t think anybody could make another Christmas album like Phil Spector, but if anybody could it would be Stevie.”
