David Bowie and Bing Crosby Performing “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” a classic that was a Christmas Miracle
December 1st…
So you can’t complain it is too early for Christmas Decorations and Music.
So at Doing It All we are going to start listing off our favorite Christmas Mood builders. They are things that no matter what time of year it is it feels like Christmas, and it ain’t Christmas without them. They are in no particular order and there is no rhyme or reason to how they appear.
To start the list one of my favorites and definitely a strange mash up due to publicity pushing studios.
David Bowie’s appearance on Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas and most importantly the Duet performance of “PEACE ON EARTH/LITTLE DRUMMER BOY” by Bing and David.
Pre-80s, Christmas was a magical time of year for TV, particular Celebrity Variety Show Special. Bing Crosby was the KING. Outside of his status as master of “WHITE CHRISTMAS” from 1970 to 1977 he hosted a Christmas Special each year. The last airing November 30th 1977 it was Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas.
The premise for the show is Bing receive a letter from a long-lost relative, Sir Percival Crosby, inviting the family to spend Christmas in England. So of course this leaves an opening for having guest appearances of British Celebrities that will bring the kids in, so who should appear…Twiggy and of course DAVID BOWIE. Because every Hollywood Executive knew that the kids were hip to Twiggy the emaciate Model, and David Bowie the sometime androgynous singer, who also happens to be a musical genius and ultimately might have surpassed Bing in celebrity status.
Anyway, I digress. What many people don’t know is that this surreal performance that has become a mainstay on Christmas Radio Play was created and performed within hours of it being written. KINDA…
When David arrived at the stage he was show and told he was going to sing “LITTLE DRUMMER BOY”, he balked and refused to sing the song because of a personal hatred for the song. So Ian Fraser, along with songwriter Larry Grossman and the special’s scriptwriter, Buz Kohan, then wrote “Peace on Earth” and within hours of writing David Bowie Performed it along side Bing Crosby Performing “LITTLE DRUMMER BOY”
Despite the awkward and downright cringe worthy dialogue leading up to the duet. The songs combined and made a new Christmas Classic.
Oddly enough this now classic song almost never happened, the show was filmed in London just 5 weeks prior to the death of Bing Crosby.
IT AIN’T CHRISTMAS UNTIL #2 SNL CREATES A HANUKKAH CLASSIC
