My Name Is Love by Love Darlene

Author:Love, Darlene [Love, Darlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062305510
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Uprooted

I could usually let remarks like the one that Fanita made about Tom Jones roll off me. The Blossoms, even without hits of their own, had lasted since 1956, since before I got there. It had become a second family to me. Even though Fanita and I had had our difficult moments, we were still like sisters. I saw her more than my own sister, Edna, and our problems were just like those of any sibling rivalry that can heat up and really level you for a while but that in the end only made us grow closer. Fanita and I, fifteen years into our friendship and partnership, still did family things, like Christmas shopping or taking our kids on vacation. And one of our greatest moments as the Blossoms came when Bobby Darin presented us with the NAACP Image Award in 1971, which we won over more well-known groups like the Supremes and the Honey Cone. The ceremony was held right after we got off a tour, and Fanita just wanted to go home. The award was new, so she thought it was just a publicity stunt, and told our manager, Mike Patterson, that she wanted no part of going to the ceremony. But I went, and when we won, it was the only real recognition we’d received in our career. I think Fanita has regretted not being there ever since.

The situation got worse during a gig with Paul Anka at the Copa in New York. This was right before we started working for Tom Jones. Paul was a big fan of my Phil Spector records, and he and I had become friendly. I knew him better than Jean and Fanita did. In the middle of one show, he introduced us to the crowd as Darlene Love and the Blossoms. Though it was becoming fashionable for group names to “expand”—the Supremes suddenly became Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Miracles became Smokey Robinson and the Miracles—I had never pushed for top billing. This was just Paul being a fan, and in a sense, he was just showing me off.

I thought Fanita would tear down the place. She jumped all over Paul and started calling him out right there in front of the crowd. No amount of our shushing or joking could calm her down. Her mouth was running the wrong way down a one-way street. “Who do you think you are? Darlene Love is not the star. This group is not Darlene Love and the Blossoms.”

This nice man, this future spokesman for Kodak, could be a tough little pit bull, and he wheeled around and said, “Listen, bitch, that’s the way I introduced you, and that’s the way it’s going to stay.” Thank God the show was almost over, because Fanita walked off through the kitchen, to the elevator, without saying another word to us. Jean and I just stared at each other in disbelief. The next show Paul introduced us again as Darlene Love and the Blossoms. He made his point.

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