David Letterman Reunites with Darlene Love and Paul Shaffer for a Christmas Tradition

There's one cherished holiday tradition I've really missed over the past nine years, and it's the one that ended when The Late Show with David Letterman went off the air in 2015. For a span of 28 years, from 1986 until 2014, Darlene Love appeared on the final Letterman show before Christmas 21 times to sing her classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." Recorded in 1963 for the iconic album "A Christmas Gift For You from Phil Spector," it's my favorite Christmas song of all time. 

Well, it's not quite the same, but Letterman reunited briefly just the other day with Love, his former band leader, Paul Shaffer, and executive producer Barbara Gaines, to share their memories of this former holiday tradition:

Love first appeared with Letterman in December 1986, when his show was on at 12:30 a.m. on NBC following Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. She returned in 1994 after Letterman moved his show to CBS and appeared every year of its CBS run save for 2007, when a writers' strike preempted most original programming. I didn't watch much late night TV during those years, but I always tried to watch Letterman's final broadcast before Christmas to see Love perform.

There were two other traditional components to the last pre-Christmas show each year. First, Paul Shaffer regaled folks with his story of the appearance of William Conrad, the star of TV's Canon, on the Sonny and Cher Christmas show. Next, Jay Thomas was usually on hand to tell his famous Lone Ranger story. Sadly, Thomas died several years ago and therefore missed this week's reunion. Shaffer did tell his William Conrad story at this year's get-together.

For those others who loved this late night Late Show tradition, super fan Don Giller has created a lengthy tape featuring all of Darlene Love's appearances and other related material that's well worth watching.

 

Be sure to check out Giller's written description of the video on its YouTube posting page HERE. 

Thanks to Don Giller and to all who are responsible for this wonderful tradition and for this year's reunion!

Watch a Supercut of Darlene Love's Holiday Appearances on Letterman Over the Years

Read An Appreciation of "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" on "Reason to Rock"

Have You Heard the One About Cher and William Conrad Singing Christmas Carols?

As I've repeatedly pointed out, last night's final pre-Christmas Late Show with David Letterman marked the end of two longstanding holiday traditions. Darlene Love has been on-hand to sing her 1963 classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" for the past 28 years, while Jay Thomas has appeared nearly every year since 1998 to play the Quarterback Challenge and regale us with his famous "Lone Ranger Story," which Dave calls "the greatest talk show story ever told." With Letterman scheduled to retire next May, those traditions effectively ended with last night's show. But last night was also the swan song for another, less well-known tradition — Paul Shaffer's "Sonny and Cher (and Cannon)" Christmas story. Here's Paul on last night's Late Show describing what he remembers about the 1973 holiday episode of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour:


 

 Well, now, this story intrigued me — first, because I'm a fan of bad 1970s television, and, second, because I like Cannon, the famous Quinn Martin detective show starring William Conrad.* (I know, I know. I'm being redundant.) If Conrad was on TV singing Christmas carols in the '70s, I want to see it. So, I went straight to YouTube where I quickly found the clip Shaffer described from a 41-year-old episode of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour:




All in all, I'd say that Shaffer's description was pretty much spot on. (Conrad saunters at about 1:10 to sing "The First Noel," and Cher, her hands in the famous muff, begins singing "Oh Holy Night" at around 2:50.) I'd never heard Shaffer's rendition before, and even if his telling of it is a genuine holiday tradition, it doesn't hold a candle to Thomas's and Love's longstanding regular appearances. In case you missed it, here's Darlene Love on last night's Late Show with David Letterman: 

And here's Letterman's entire last pre-Christmas broadcast from 12/19/14. The Jay Thomas bit begins at 16:32:

 

How did Thomas feel about ending his traditional pre-Christmas appearances?  "I am so friggin' glad this is over," he deadpanned. 

Not me.

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*Brave adult readers who are interested in a different perspective on William Conrad than what we saw on Cannon can listen to his X-rated rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" HERE.