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OK, everyone performs brilliantly and memorably, BUT one of the more familiar names, Darlene Love, gets to re-write some pop history around herself. Love makes a desperately false claim to voicing Phil Spector's biggest hits only to be "held back" in her career (according to Love) because the original girl group,The Crystals, were given the credit for her work. Cue a video of the girls lip-syncing to Love's He's A Rebel.

Case proved? No, because He's A Rebel was in Love's own admission just some early paid session work for Spector who she charged over the odds because he was in a hurry to record the track. As she has said many times over, Love never expected to get the credit or any publicity at all for He's A Rebel which Spector released on the unsuspecting Crystals who then had to promote it for him (that video clip).

Love has given loads of interviews on this subject and is on record as saying that she only became interested when He's A Rebel began to take off. Surely if I can find this stuff out by looking on youtube anyone can.

However, it gets worse. Love and the Blossoms (and I really like them) reform for the documentary and Love is asked to suggest a number to sing. Da Doo Ron Ron? Now things are getting really scary as far as The Crystals are concerned. The Crystals (who could really sing by the way) and whose fiery La La Brooks was just 15 years old when she cut the lead vocals on Da Doo Ron Ron, have been given a complete pasting in the edit by director, Morgan Neville.

This isn't just bad journalism. With Neville's help, Love is treading all over these artists in her revised account of the early Spector years. And lets remember that The Crystals and La La Brooks are still alive and well, out there performing today. Brooks is now a solo artist, but her memories and background are of shooting to stardom at the age of 15 with Spector and of singing the lead vocals on Da Doo Ron Ron and Then he Kissed Me as well as there being a string of other songs charting for The Crystals in their own right.

Darlene Love was nowhere near this stuff and her input as far as The Crystals are concerned has been greatly exaggerated to say the very least. This part of the documentary is almost a hit piece and it beggars belief that Neville does nothing to rein in Darlene Love's excesses.

The more so as Love could genuinely refer to the issues which she faced a bit further on down the road under contract with Phil Spector. She finally pulled herself out of a hole in some style and went on to become famous in her own right. Alright, there is a lot more going for the documentary in terms of some great performances, but there is also a lot of sentiment contained in the premise for the documentary. It is all about being a great performer, about performing behind others who are receiving the stardom.

Note how this documentary has worked in reverse for La La Brooks and The Crystals who are more or less having their work plagiarised from above. Can it get any worse for them? Very soon the "20 Feet From Stardom" circus will be coming to town to promote this film. If their US appearances at screenings of the film are anything to go by Darlene Love will be digging herself in even deeper on the subject of who sang what in the early Spector years, while Morgan Neville just smiles and looks on approvingly.

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