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Recorded on 11 September 1977 at ATV Elstree Studios near London for Crosby's television special Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, the song features Crosby singing 1941 standard "The Little Drummer Boy" while Bowie sings the counterpoint tune "Peace on Earth", written by the special's musical supervisors Ian Fraser and Larry Grossman, and ...
Dec 24, 2023 · Having already aired in the US, the UK got the chance to see David Bowie and Bing Crosby’s Christmas duet, Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy for the first time on this day in 1977. Five years later the RCA release of the recording peaked at #3 for Christmas and the last week of 1982.
The Christmas duet bridging two generations of music, marrying the classic croons of Bing Crosby with the avant-garde style of David Bowie.
Dec 24, 2023 · This is the full story behind David Bowie and Bring Crosby’s Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy duet, and why an entirely new Christmas song had to be written in order to make it happen. Listen to the best Christmas songs here.
- 4 min
- Andrea Warner
- 'The Little Drummer Boy' was originally called 'Carol of the Drum' Flashback to the very beginning: written by American composer and educator Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941, "Carol of the Drum" was actually based on an unidentified Czech carol and intended for choirs.
- After more than a decade as rock's glam space freak oddity, Bowie was 'actively trying to normalize' his career. That assertion of Bowie's motives was made by David Buckley in Strange Fascination — David Bowie: the Definitive Story.
- Bowie hated 'The Little Drummer Boy' According to writer Annie Zaleski, who breaks it down for UltimateClassicRock.com, Bowie walked into the taping and asked if there was something else he could sing.
- The first meeting between Bowie and Crosby wasn't quite love at first sight. Crosby's children, Nathaniel and Mary, recounted the sequence of events for Billboard in 2014
Nov 30, 2017 · David Bowie and Bing Crosby appeared in a CBS holiday special called 'Merrie Olde Christmas' that aired on Nov. 30, 1977.
Dec 3, 2020 · The track was recorded on September 11, 1977, for Bing Crosby's TV special, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, which was to be his last. The sketch followed a plot whereby David Bowie 's friend Hudson lets him use his piano, and that Crosby is the 'poor American cousin'.
