Darlene Love / Ronnie Spector

Callaghanmichael Us Feb 25, 2022

Re-created: Phil Spector's Holiday Gift
''The greatest rock-and-roll Christmas album ever recorded,'' blare the ads for ''A Christmas Gift for You,'' the Bottom Line's tribute to the ground-breaking record that wed genteel seasonal music with thundering rock-and-roll 25 years ago.

Released at the height of the legendary pop producer's glory, the album, ''A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector,'' flopped when it was first released in November 1963. Not until 1972 did it crack Billboard's pop-album chart. And because the reclusive producer, who turns 48 years old this Sunday, owns the record and has never submitted it to the Recording Industry Association of America for ''gold'' certification, only he knows for sure how many albums have been sold over the years.

The collection of 12 holiday perennials, plus one contemporary rock-and-roll ballad, ''Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),'' by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, all arranged in Mr. Spector's pumped-up, jangling ''wall of sound'' signature style, is now available on Rhino Records. The Bottom Line show re-creates all 13 cuts live onstage using a 10-piece band and several top studio singers. Most important, it features the original album's two principal voices, Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love. In the last three years, both Ms. Spector and Ms. Love have released solo albums that show their exhortatory vocal powers undiminished.

Ms. Spector, who sings ''Frosty the Snowman,'' ''Sleigh Ride'' and ''I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,'' was only 19 when she worked on the album. To an entire generation of urban teen-agers, she stands as the vocal epitome of a tough, sexy teen-age girl that every black-leather-jacketed boy dreamed of scooting around on the back of a motorcycle. Sonny Bono Comes Back

With her rich, reedy pop-gospel voice, Ms. Love's singing evokes a more spiritual echo of the same boundless exuberance. Her songs include ''White Christmas,'' ''Winter Wonderland,'' ''Marshmallow World,'' and ''Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).'' Sonny Bono, the show's special guest, worked as Mr. Spector's assistant on the album. At the Bottom Line, he portrays the elusive Mr. Spector, who can be heard on ''Silent Night,'' the album's final cut, intoning a saccharine message of good will as the carol drones in the background.

For Mr. Bono, the show represents a nostalgic homecoming. Now the Mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., he hasn't appeared onstage in Manhattan since 1968, when Sonny and Cher performed in a rock-and-roll revue at Madison Square Garden.

The Bottom Line show was put together by the same team and uses many of the same musicians who participated in the club's rock-and-roll revues ''Leader of the Pack'' and ''Just Once.''

''When Phil was having such success with his singles, he decided to do the holiday album and asked Darlene what she thought of the idea, and she told him he was nuts,'' said Melanie Mintz, who researched the history of the album and wrote a script connecting the tunes. ''Phil started working on it in the summer of '62, tacking on extra recording time to his regular singles sessions. It was finally completed in a six-week frenzy in the summer of '63. According to Hal Blaine, the drummer on Phil's records, the sessions at the Gold Star Studio in Los Angeles were the most sought-after among young musicians in Los Angeles. The band was nicknamed the Wrecking Crew because the city's old-time musicians thought they were wrecking the music business. One of the pianists was Leon Russell.''

''Because the album was released the week before Kennedy was assassinated, it bombed,'' Ms. Mintz said. ''It was not a normal Christmas. The only disk jockey who would play it was Murray the K, and that was because Darlene and Ronnie were appearing at a Christmas show he was hosting.'' Memories of Chaos

Ms. Love has fond memories of a chaotic time. ''When Phil brought up the idea of a Christmas album, I thought it was silly,'' she said. ''But one of the things he let me do was choose the songs I wanted to sing. I was also responsible for putting all the background vocals together. The most intricate production on the album was 'Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).''

''The sessions went on late into the night,'' Ms. Love continued. ''I remember I wore a wig all the time because I didn't want to bother putting on a scarf or a hat at 3 A.M. One night everyone was so worn out that something had to be done to liven things up. I was lying back in the chair listening to the music and Sonny came up behind me and started beating on a bass drum. I jumped and the wig flew off my head, and everybody laughed so hard that we couldn't go on working.''

Mr. Bono looks back with awe on his former employer, who now leads a reclusive life in Los Angeles.

''I was so blown away by Phil's music, I contacted him and talked him into hiring me, and soon I became his everything - gofer, promotion man, percussionist and background singer,'' he recalled. ''We were all overwhelmed by Phil and fascinated by him. I worked with all of his groups, including the Ronettes, Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, the Righteous Brothers and the Crystals.''

''After a while, time caught up with Phil as it does with everyone if you have only one sound; the novelty wore off,'' Mr. Bono continued. ''I remember taking one of his records around to disk jockeys and the enthusiasm wasn't there. I called him from a phone booth, and he wanted to know the reaction - was it on the radio? And I said, 'Phil, I think we have to change our sound a little.' From that time on, there was a distance between us. Very soon after that, I took everything I had learned from him and struck out on my own.''