Everybody knows her voice, but not everybody knows her name.
Probably one of the busiest background singers in the world, the powerful voice of Darlene Love was behind some of the classics of 1960s pop: it was Love who sung on "He's a Rebel", "He's Sure the Boy I Love", "Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna Marry" and half of famous LP "A Christmas Gift For You From Philles Records" with evergreen "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". However, for convoluted and complicated reasons, most of these singles were usually credited to other singers and basically wide audience never really knew Darlene Love, unless one really recognised her voice. After the glorious 1960s, when she was a jewel in the crown of mad genius Phil Spector (who used her voice as the main ingredient for his famous "Wall of Sound") she floundered without any solo hits and balanced the decades between singing backing vocals for others and doing manual cleaning jobs, until eventually documentaries, recognitions and awards came her way.
The book is very easy to read, with Love chatty, conversational style and occasional gossip. She was there, so she knows it all - behind the stage business, hostilities, flirtations, late night parties, tours, etc. The biggest paradox of her life is that her legend is cemented during the years she spent working for Phil Spector - this is her main legacy and the reason she is known - but at the same time, because she was used, cheated and financially robbed by Spector, he is the main antagonist in her book. Without him, we would not know about Darlene Love, but he did almost everything to push her into oblivion. There is a chapter describing how she almost got a new start with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff who at the time were at the top of the world with their "Philadelphia International" recording company - she signed the contract, was working on selection for the new songs and than told that they got an offer they could not refuse and sold her contract to Phil Spector. Who basically prevented her from having solo success and was using her as a backing vocalist again.
"What kept me with Phil so long in the sixties, aside from my contract, was my feeling that no matter what shenanigans he was pulling that day, he always respected my talent. But now he just kept his back to me while I was singing. I’d finish a take, and without turning around to look at me, he’d flip on the monitor and say, “I don’t like it, do it again.” A couple of times I couldn’t even get a line out before he stopped and told me to start over. I looked up and saw them all laughing in the booth, and once, when Phil was turned toward me, I could read his lips: “Watch me make her do it again.” I stood this abuse for about two hours, then I just put the headphones down, put on my coat, and walked out. It was bad enough that he had stolen my contract, but now he was treating me like his slave."
Legally prevented from recording as solo artist, love eventually continued singing backing vocalist on tours with Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick and Cher - there is a palpable impression that along the way she felt lot of frustration, knowing that her contemporaries are enjoying the fruits of their work while she toiled in the background. Occasional swipe at Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick or Tina Turner shows the cracks in the smiling facade and she even admits "But looking at Dionne onstage, standing and singing behind her, I had to take a long, hard look at myself and how our careers had diverged since that great turkey dinner in 1962. Back then we were about even; maybe I was even a little ahead. Now she was one of the biggest stars in the business and here I was singing backup for her. I didn’t begrudge Dionne or resent her success in any way. She deserved it. It was never a feeling of “Why her?”—just “Why not me, too?”
Love eventually got recognition when she was included in a Oscar winning documentary "20 Feet from Stardom" about the world of background singers and how important they are. She was even included in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, even as she never had solo success - but as a brick in the famous "Wall of Sound" she has every right to be there amongst the immortals.
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