How Bing Crosby and David Bowie Created a Christmas Classic—By Accident

On this episode of Our American Stories, in what would be Bing Crosby’s final Christmas special, he teamed up with glam rock legend David Bowie for a duet that defied expectations. “Little Drummer Boy / Peace on Earth” went on to become one of the most cherished Christmas songs of all time. Discover how this strange and beautiful collaboration almost fell apart—and what made it a timeless part of classic Christmas music history.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:29):
And we continue with our American stories, and we love
telling stories about songs and about music, because in the end, music,
while it pridges cultural divides, it pridges generational divides, ethnic
and racial divides as well. This one is the story
behind David Bowie and Bing Crosby's unlikely Hollywood duet. There

(00:52):
have been otter musical collaborations in the past. In two
thousand and one, Elton John performed with Eminem at the
two thousand and one Grammys. In nineteen eighty four, Spanish
pop singer Julio Iglesias and West Texan troubadour Willie Nelson
recorded to All the Girls I've Loved Before. But of
all the unlikely duets dotting pop music history, the one

(01:15):
that brought together seventy three year old American crooner Bing
Crosby and thirty year old British glamorrocker David Bowie is
the best. Their collaboration in the fall of nineteen seventy
seven proved to be one of the most enduring recordings
of either man's career and an instant Christmas classic. Indeed,

(01:37):
the story of how Peace on Earth the Little Drummer
Boy came to be is itself classic. The two men
could not have been more different. They came from different
countries and different generations, and the two men had radically
different ideas about almost everything, including fashion, politics, sexuality, and music.

(01:58):
So how did the two come to make music history.
It turns out that Crosby was on tour in Great
Britain at the time, and his management team figured such
a duet would be perfect for his upcoming CBSTV special,
which would come to be known as Bing Crosby's Merry
Old Christmas. Bowie would be one of several pop guests

(02:19):
for the special, along with Oliver's star Ron Moody and
model Twiggy. The producers used such appearances to help keep
the show and the star himself relevant. Bowie was a
huge international star at the time, so Crosby's team threw
in an added incentive to lure him in. They agreed

(02:40):
to promote the video of the glam Rockers' latest single
Heroes during the broadcast. Bowie ended up agreeing to appear,
but not because of the negotiating skills of his management team.
It was Bowie's mom who sealed the deal. She was
a huge fan of the aging crooner and Bowie wanted
to make mom happy. Crosby, too, was influenced by his family.

(03:05):
His teenage children were huge Bowie fans and wanted more
than anything in life to be on this set to
see the avant garde rocker singing with their dad. On
September eleventh, nineteen seventy seven, they got their wish, but
things didn't start off propitiously. Here's bing Crosby's daughter. The

(03:27):
doors opened and David walked in with his wife. They
were both wearing full lengthening coats, They had matching full makeup,
and their hair was bright red, and we were thinking,
oh my god. To say there were tensions on the
set would be an understatement. Crosby's son, Nathaniel, remembered the
producers being shocked by Bowie's appearance. Here's what Bowie's sun,

(03:51):
Nathaniel told reporters at the time. It almost didn't happen.
The producers told him to take the lipstick off and
the earring out. It was It's just incredible to see
the contrast. It didn't take long for Bowie to acquiesce,
and soon the work began. The writers got to work
on the script and created his skit that took advantage

(04:13):
of the intergenerational differences between the two singers. The premise
was simple. Crosby, playing himself, walks through a London mansion
of relatives to find out who just rang the doorbell.
The young man at the door is Bowie playing himself.
You the new butler.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
It's been a long act as I've been the new
anything on David Bowie.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
I live down the road, Sir Percival lets me use
his piano when he's not around.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
He's not around, isn't I can honestly say I haven't
seen him?

Speaker 1 (04:44):
But come on in. The two continue the stick, gently
poking fun of themselves and the fleeting nature of fame.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Oh you're not the poor relation from the lyric.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Ah. Yeah, he sure travels fast, doesn't it. I've been
Oh I'm pleased to meet you. You're the one that
sings right well, right or wrong? I sing either way?

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, I sing too, Oh good?

Speaker 2 (05:08):
What kind of thing?

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Well, mostly the contemporary stuff. Do you do you like
modern music?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Oh? I think it's marvelous. Some of it really fine.
But tell me, do you ever listen to any of
the older fellows? Oh?

Speaker 3 (05:20):
Yeah, sure, I like John Lenna and the other one
with Harry Nilsen.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
You go back that far? Huh.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, I'm not as young as I look.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
None of us is these days.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
In fact, I've got a six year old son and
he really gets excited around the Christmas holiday thing.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Do you go in for any of the traditional things
in the boy household Christmas town? Oh?

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah, most of them really?

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, presents, tree decorations, agents sliding down the chimney. I
was just saying, if you're paying attention, actually, our family
do most of the things that other families do. We
sing the same songs. I even ever go at Why Christmas?

Speaker 2 (05:57):
You doo? Eh?

Speaker 3 (05:59):
And this one, this is my sound's favorite.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Do you know this more?

Speaker 2 (06:02):
I do? Indeed, it's a lovely thing.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
The script then called for the two men to cozy
up to a baby grand piano and begin singing Little
Drummer Boy. That's when everything turned south. There's something else
we could sing. Composer Ian Fraser remember Bowie asking as
they reviewed the script, we didn't know what to do.
With no time to squander, Frasier, along with co writers

(06:27):
Buzz Cohen and Larry Grossman, did what artists in a
jam have always done. They improvised, creating an original song
Piece on Earth, and an arrangement that merged the new
song with the old Christmas classic. Bowie loved the melody
and he agreed to perform it. One problem, the musical one,

(06:49):
was solved, and the producers somehow managed to get Bowie
to dress in a more subdued manner, abandoning the makeup
and colorful clothing for something more subtle, something more traditional.
Soon it was recording time. The entire set was on edge.
What would happen? How would these two very different men

(07:11):
react to each other? What would it look like? What
on earth would it sound like? Crosby's daughter recalled a
moment the two men sat down to rehearse. They sat
at the piano and Dad was a little nervous, But
eventually Dad realized David was an amazing musician, and David
realized Dad was an amazing musician. You could see them

(07:34):
both collectively relax, and then the magic. It was just made.
After only an hour's worth of rehearsal time, Bowie and
Crosby nailed their performance. A few days after the taping,
Crosby said of Bowie, he sings well as a great
voice and reads lines well too. Peace on Earth Little

(07:56):
Drummer Boy would turn out to be one of the
last songs Crosby ever recorded, and the last Christmas special
he would ever make. Just a month later, he died
of a heart attack after playing a round of golf,
and a month after that, bing Crosby's Merry Old Christmas
aired on CBS. His widow Catherine did an introduction as

(08:19):
a nation wept. But the story doesn't end there. Peace
on Earth Little Drummer Boy arrived as a single five
years later in November of nineteen eighty two, curiously backed
by Fantastic Voyage from Bowie's nineteen seventy nine album Lodger,
the single became a massive UK chart topper, landing at

(08:41):
number three in early nineteen eighty three. It was one
of the best selling singles of Bowie's entire career. Against
all odds, He's on Earth, Little Drummer Boy became a
Christmas classic. We have a few very talented song doctors
to thank for it, along with Bowie's mom and Crosby's kids,

(09:04):
and of course Crosby and Bowie too. Their collaboration proved
the adage that nothing has the power to bring people
together more than music. It was true then, and it's
still true now. The story behind Bowie and Bing's unlikely
Hollywood duet. Here on our American Stories