![]() ![]() It wasn't my job to tell Phil Spector what to do. See, I was never part of The Crystals Phil Spector just used me like he used anybody else. When I tried to perform again, it was also tough. I came back home and tried to find session work, but session work was totally nil by then. I decided to go on the road - and the road was great, but I got tired of being away from home. How did you make that leap?That all started in California when I was having a lot of financial problems. Next thing, you're performing the song for David Letterman, a tradition that still stands today. There's a section in the film where you discuss hitting hard times, working as a maid in California in the early 1980s and then hearing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on the radio. I don't know who gave us the name "background singers," but I think that came about when The Blossoms started doing background. They weren't even called background singers they were just called singers. There were no black background singers, there were only white singers. I think we did our first session in 1958. What Lou and Dick told him was that if he was going to do a documentary about background singers, he'd have to call me, because I, with the group The Blossoms, was one of the first black background singers in the business. When Gil called me, all he said was that he had an idea to do a story about background singers, but he didn't know where to go or what to do. A lot of them don't pan out, and you use all your time and energy. You be nice and talk to him." You know, over the years as entertainers, you get called for a whole lot of things. ![]() It was very funny: two friends of mine, Lou Adler, a record producer, and Dick Donner, who did the "Lethal Weapon" movies, called me and said, "This friend of ours is going to call you, Darlene. How did you get involved with this film?Who came to me first was Gil Friesen, the producer. ![]()
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