Darlene Love performing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” for the holidays is a longstanding staple of late-night television. Now, after a decade away, Love is finally coming home to 11:35.
Love is set to perform the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon next week, marking the singer’s first late-night performance of the song since David Letterman went off the air.
The legendary singer tells People magazine that the booking came about after she encountered Fallon at The View one year. “Ultimately… the time just seemed right to do it,” Love told the outlet. “It hasn’t been anything to do with really one particular thing.”
Love’s comments strike a very different tone than the ones she made earlier this year, when she accused Fallon’s music producer of “giving us the runaround.”
“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 on Facebook back in March. “We’ve been trying for almost 10 years… 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.”
Love first performed the song for Letterman in 1986 on his NBC show, Late Night with David Letterman, and returned in future years. The performance became an annual affair when Letterman moved to CBS for Late Show. Beginning in 1994, Love guested on the show nearly every December for its entire run.
Letterman resurrected the tradition last year when he had Love perform the song accompanied by Paul Shaffer on his YouTube channel. At the time, Love hadn’t performed the song for Letterman in nine years—since Late Show’s last Christmas celebration in December 2014. The channel also posted a supercut of Love’s many performances over the years:
Following the end of Late Show, Love began making annual holiday appearances on The View.
Love’s Tonight Show appearance is scheduled for Wednesday, December 18 episode. She’ll perform with Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul, the band fronted by Steven Van Zandt.
f that guy.
Still sends chills and brings me to tears. Can’t wait for next week’s revival of what I hope becomes a new tradition!