A Christmas gift for you

This was a live performance in Nashville for Christmas 1988 of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” from A Christmas Gift For You, Phil Spector’s 1963 Christmas album which features the Ronettes, Darlene Love, the Crystals and others. Soul/pop heaven, obviously. There aren’t any clips of the original artists in this repertoire at the time (though Darlene Love does a great version of this same song in 1981 in a badly lit amateur vid of a good show) but this one below comes close, with a full Spector-quality band – note the bassoonist in the green jacket in the front row. What was the director thinking? The singer is Jana King; the host and pianist is Al Delory who played for Spector and was the man who produced the great run of Glen Campbell singles such as “Galveston” and “Wichita Lineman”. Which makes him the Man.



Right. Happy Christmas, everyone. I’m off for a drink with Laughy Kate, who’s come up north for a while. Barry Humphries reports Amy Tan’s theory that:

every holiday dinner and all weddings and funerals need the presence of some irritating person or drunken uncle to unify the other guests.

Kate’s got the irritating-person gig, so I guess that leaves me as the uncle. Not again.