She’s late-night royalty thanks to her record 21 performances of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on David Letterman’s NBC and CBS shows, but Darlene Love says she isn’t feeling the love from Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show.
Since Letterman’s retirement in 2015, Love has performed her signature Christmas song on The View, NBC’s Christmas in Rockefeller Center, and even on Letterman’s YouTube Channel. You might think she’d be welcomed at The Tonight Show too, but the 82-year-old Love took to Facebook this week to express her frustration at the show’s apparent lack of interest.
“Was hoping to make an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to do one last late-night performance but his music producer … keeps giving us the runaround and saying they’re booked months in advance,” Love wrote.
“We’ve been trying for almost 10 years, she added. “Jimmy had told me in the green room at The View a few years ago that he was a huge fan and welcomed me on to perform whenever I want but his producers keep passing.”
A 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Love was ranked among Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Singers. She’s credited David Letterman with resurrecting her career when he first began inviting her to sing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on his show in the late 1980s.
In her Facebook note, Love noted “The last time I performed on that show was with Jay Leno and he rolled out the red carpet for me and was so gracious and such a gentleman.”
“Oh well,” she concluded. “I still get rejected at 82, kiddos!”
Entertainers aged out?!?
Fallon’s music producers seem more interested in pleasing their target market of millennials, Gen Z &Gen Xers than paying tribute to some of the greatest talent that ever was and still is on the planet. If Fallon isn’t involved in all aspects of production (as Executive Producer) perhaps it’s time he stepped up to the plate. Darlene Love is an American treasure. Her musical legacy is a tradition that needs to be carried on in these times of uncertainty. Go Darlene! So glad to have you back!