Darlene Love: I Know Where I've Been

The gulf between an artist’s impact on the world and the fame and adulation it generates can be vast and thoroughly unfair. For one such underappreciated musical icon, this high-spirited, warm-hearted portrait narrows that gap considerably.

Darlene Love generously shares her story in the latest of director Barry Avrich’s many engaging music docs, which include David Foster: Off The Record (TIFF ’19) and Oscar Peterson: Black + White (TIFF ’21).

Now in her eighties and still utterly magnetic on camera and on stage, Love recounts her journey, starting with her early days singing in a church choir in Los Angeles. Then came the many years she spent providing lead and background vocals, often uncredited, for some of the biggest hits of the 1960s while under contract to Phil Spector, the superstar producer who became her nemesis. Indeed, Spector’s machinations sparked decades of intense professional and personal struggles. Yet, despite every setback, Love weathered the storm to claim the centre-stage spotlight she has always deserved.

It all makes for an incredible story full of triumphs, heartbreaks, and inspirational demonstrations of resilience. It’s no wonder Love attracted so many friends along the way. Avrich assembles a who’s who of luminaries — Cher, Dionne Warwick, Bruce Springsteen, and David Letterman, among others — to express their admiration and affection.

Of course, there’s plenty of music to savour here, too. Along with a trove of archival clips, Avrich’s film features thrilling new sequences of Love and guest musicians like Paul Shaffer performing her most treasured songs, including “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” the holiday song that made Darlene Love the indisputable Queen of Christmas.

JASON ANDERSON