Originally Posted by
chemelr
It is time for honesty concerning Darlene Love, The Crystals and the Da Doo Ron Ron. I will get straight to the point. Phil Spector stated in August 2012 and December 2013 that Darlene Love had nothing to do with the DDRR. He told this to his wife, Rachelle Spector. That means Darlene did not record a track or sing background on the DDRR. La La Brooks, the former lead singer of The Crystals is the one and only original singer of the DDRR. At that time in history Darlene was at home caring for her newborn son. It is well known that Phil Spector didn’t overwrite tapes – as Darlene claims she was recorded on the DDRR and her voice was later overwritten with La La’s. He kept everything.
Darlene Love wrote a letter to Phil Spector recently asking him to confirm that she sang some part of the DDRR. He didn’t answer her as he knew she didn’t have anything to do with that.
Darlene Love says in the recently released DVD of Twenty Feet From Stardom, words to the effect that The Crystals didn’t want to be friends or close to her. La La Brooks was the only Crystal to have met Darlene in 1963. Dee Dee Kinniebrew, also a Crystal, didn’t meet Darlene until she [[Dee Dee) was 38 years old back in 1983 or 1984. All other members of The Crystals, to this day, have not met Darlene.
The management of La La Brooks contacted Morgan Neville about the fact that Darlene had nothing to do with the DDRR and he was dismayed. He felt Darlene had pulled one on him and he apologized to La La Brooks for this oversight. He also felt badly because he had to pay for the rights to use the DDRR in TFFS. After all a documentary needs to be accurate for the producer to maintain his reputation.
Why is it that from 1963 to 1983, Darlene never said anything about being a part of the DDRR? Darlene started to claim that she sang the DDRR after she was on the Broadway play for Ellie Greenwich. This just happened to coincide with the year that La La Brooks went to Europe to live for a number of years. When La La returned to the US, Shirley Alston-Reeves, formerly of the Shirelles, told La La that Darlene was claiming the DDRR. Dee Dee Kinniebrew who owns the rights to “The Crystals” spent many a radio hour explaining to the host and the public that Darlene did not sing the DDRR.
Darlene’s “friend” Cher was overjoyed to see La La Brooks in a NYC club this past year. La La Brooks stated that she told Cher that Darlene was claiming to sing the DDRR again. Cher smiled and rolled her eyes. The paparazzi was thick and they were unable to carry on their conversation. Best evidence to date is that Cher, Fanita James and Gracia Nitzsche sang background on the DDRR. So Cher should know.
Darlene has enough credit on other things, why is it so important to her to tell everyone that she sang the DDRR in any shape, form or fashion? Does she get added income from saying this? Everyone knows that it is La La Brooks’ voice singing the DDRR. I sang the DDRR in 1963 because I love the song but that doesn’t mean I can take credit for it. Darlene has used excuses that Spector didn’t want to pay her scale or that her name or The Blossoms wouldn’t sell. He did pay for La La to fly from NYC to LA and back, pay her expenses as well as pay her for the session, put her up at the Knickerbocker Hotel in LA, and he had both Sonny and Cher drive her [[La La) around town, to and from the studio, etc, as Sonny worked for Spector and Cher was hoping to get into the business. Spector could have used the money that he spent on La La to pay Darlene but he didn’t.
If this is important to Darlene, why doesn’t she lay out the entire version of her singing the DDRR, either lead or background? She never has presented any evidence. Have her elaborate in detail to the public. All Darlene has ever said is that she sang a track on the DDRR and it was over written with La La’s voice. Again, it is known that Phil did not overwrite or re-use tapes, he kept everything. Even The Wrecking Crew, the musicians on the DDRR, don’t recall Darlene singing any part of the DDRR.
It is really uncouth to claim someone else’s fame. If Darlene believes that strongly that she should get credit for the DDRR, please have her elaborate in detail. I am surprised that to this point, she hasn’t done so.
Another error in Twenty Feet From Stardom is that The Blossoms did not sing background on Betty Everett's Shoop, Shoop Song. The Opals did and the song was recorded by VJ Records in Chicago. The Blossoms sang background when Merry Clayton sang the SSS, which was a flop. The Blossoms sang background when Aretha Franklin sang a cover of the SSS on Shindig. No record was made of this event.
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