Darlene Love isthe holidays ff+:till;;d, all you need at Christmastime I t doesn't seem possible. tcgendary I sirger Darlene Love has been at the I hearl of Christmas music for decades I She was a key voice on the very flrst rock'n' roll holiday album: Phil Spector's 1963 classic, "A Christmro Gift for You " And she's popped up during the holidays ever since, on the radio and on movie soundtracks, plus her anaual concerts in New York and appeumces on "Late Show W-rth David l€ttemm," where she reliably shows up this time of year to sing her classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) " Her concert this year is Dec l7 at Lincoln Center.</p><p> Yet ber new CD, "lt's Chdstmas, Of Course!," is billed as Love's veryfirst solo Christmas album. "'She never put out a Christmas CD?' Most people when they beil that proba- bly won't believe it!" laughs Love aboutthe album "But I wasn't the only one on that Spector album " (It also contained, of course, the Ronettes, the Crystals and Bob B So:or and the Blue Jeans ) "I've never actually put out an offi- cial Darlene Inve Christmas CD," says Love, whose new album tackles contem- porary holiday gems by the likes of Tom Petty, the Pretenders, XTC and others, all of which sound like classics as soon ec chp cinoe than Well. it's about time. since Ms lnve owns the holiday, "I thirk I do They call me the Chdst- mro Queen," she says "Everybody is [the royaltyl of sometling Aretha is the Queen of Soul EMs was the King of Rock 'n' Roll - and I'm the Queen of Christmas " Does that mean she could just work two months out of the vear and coast onu{:?li','.';*,m""'- ffix:f i*iv:y:::,'11..,^,, ^*ffiaU that hol.iday joy? "I've tried that, md it doesn't work," says lnve "Two months out of the year doesn't do it " plays Motomouth Maybelle in "Hairspray." She'd like to tum her Christmas concert- a l7-year tradition - into bigger extravaganza "We want to make it an evenl, Love. "We want people to come to New York to see it We're working up to that, but like everything, it takes time " a (Dec- 17, Rose Theater at Li n c o I n Ce nte r, 2 12-7 2l - 65 0 0 ) E o c aI s two years a tradition? Aimee Mam cenainJy I hopes so.</p><p> Exlausted fronr her previous a.lbum, A Nlann delivered a Christmas CD last year ("One I More Drifter in the Snow) and embarked on a shoft tour with an engaging, oddball variety-show mix of music, comedy and special guests It worked, and this year she's doing 15 shoWs (almost double that of last year) Mam says she's planning to nrake the holiday jaunt an amual tradition She'll perform this Wednesday at Manhaftan Center "lt was really, really iun," Mann says of last year's show This year's rotating guests will in- clude Joe Henry Grant-Lee Phillips, Josh Ritter, Ben Lee, Chuck Prophet, quirlqr cutie Nellie McK- ay and comic Paul E Tompkins, who emcees in New York and who ManI says inspired the whole shebang (HopetuIly, Philips will tag along for the show here; in 2006, his nana- tion of Dr Scuss' book "How the cdnch Stole Christmas" as Mann tjimade even the smallest baby boomer hearts glad ) "This yer we may tilt a little more towad music, and I won't insist everyone play Christmas songs," says Mam "We might include some film orvideo " Mann has a CD coming out in early 2008, but says this tour is something to look forward to as the year comes to a close "It's more fun fthan a regular tour] but it's also more stressful, because we really don't know what's going to happen," says the 47-year-old sing- er, who's married to musician Michael Pem "It's nice doing a Christmas show because it really gets you in the holiday mood In Boston [where her career started], I used to play Santa Claus for ev- erybody and have everyone who didn't have any- where to go come to my house. "This show is trying to get you back to when Christmas was fun And for most people, the last purely happy memory of Christmas was probably when they were 8 years old " But just because she's touring with a Christmas show. don'l assume Mann is holiday crazy. "All my Christmas spirit comes from onstage," says the singer-songwriter, who won Academy Award nominations for her songs for the mov- ie "Magnolia " "Seriously.</p><p> I'm not going to have time to buy Christmas presents " a (wednesday, Manhattan Centel crand Ballroom, 212-307-7171)Kiki & Herb are comin'to town othing goes toBether like Kiki and Herb and Christmas "Somehow when we do these Christmas shows," says perfomer Justin Bond, "it manages to focus what the thrust of what Kiki and Herb are all about Created by Bond and Kenny Melman in the early '90s, Kiki and Herb are a cynically sentimental, rather inebriated duo that does wickedly fumy covers of everj,thing from Broadway tunes to Britney Spears to Niwana They're at Camegie Hall Wednesday in a new show, "The Second Coming " It'll surely be another dizzying musical iourney laced with monologues that mix autobiographical tales of how the two chilacters met in an institution in the 1930s and have blzed through the entertainment industry ever since "There's something about the holidays that Iends a pow- er to the shows that is different from what we do during the rest of the year," says Melman "There's always been a touch of sweetness to it " Tony-nominated ior their re cent Broadway run, the New York denizens' first CD, 2000's "Do You Hear What We Heat" was a Christ- mas album whose selections ranged from "Frosty the Snoman" to the iM+A*S*H' tbeme.</p><p> Johnv Mandel's "Suicide Is Painless." I "Most people don't begin with a Christmas album," says Melman "We just thought we'd cut to the chase " "The first perfomance I ever did," adds Bond, "was when I was 18 months old and I did a little speech at a Christmas pageant That was my f,rst appearance on stage.</p><p> So maybe it's some sort of primal perfomance thing." O (Dec. 12, Camegie Hall, 212-247-7800)o U2 - r N o E o o o ! awryty sang "You're l a Mean i One, Mr Grinch" l for these holiday shows: Micftael Feinstein, Feinstein's at Loews Regency, through Dec. 29 c O'aig S.</p><p> Hmis' "Gotrs rlomboncs," Apollo Theater, Dec. 13-16 .</p><p> Ronnie Speto/s Christtes Show, B.B.</p><p> King's, Dec. 15 & 16 .</p><p> Ntr Tang Dymstys "Holklay Wonders," Beacon Theater, Dec. 18-26 .</p><p> Ctristtas Celtk Sdoum rulth &hn (yDol|oErl Town Hall, Dec. 19-20 .</p><p> Handefs Messial|.</p><p> Lincoln Center, Dec.</p><p> L9-22 .KwaEa Cc6ration, Apollo Theater, Dec. 28.
