The Story of Bing Crosby and David Bowie’s “Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth"

On this episode of Our American Stories, it was one of the oddest—and best—musical collaborations of the 20th century. Old-school pop crooner Bing Crosby partnered with British glam rocker David Bowie to create one of the most cherished Christmas songs of all time. But it almost didn’t happen. Here's the story of what went on behind the scenes to make sure it did.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
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, ethic
and racial divides as well. This one is the story
behind David Bowie and Bing Crosby's unlikely Hollywood duet. There

(00:33):
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

(00:56):
that brought together seventy three year old American crooner Bing
Crosby and thirty year old British glam rocker 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,

(01:18):
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.

(01:38):
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 guts

(02:00):
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

(02:20):
to promote the video of the glam rocker's 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

(02:40):
to make mom happy. Crosby, too, was influenced by his family.
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

(03:01):
things didn't start off propitiously. Here's bing Crosby's daughter. The
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 re tensions on the

(03:23):
set would be an understatement. Crosby's son, Nathaniel, remembered the
producers being shocked by Bowie's appearance. Here's what Bowie's sun,
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 just incredible to see the contrast.

(03:44):
It didn't take long for Bowie to acquiesce, and soon
the work began. The writers got to work on the
script and created a skit that took advantage 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

(04:07):
at the door is Bowie playing himself. Ill, you're the
new butler.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
It's been a long dot as I've been the new anything.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
I'm David Bowie. I live down the road. Oh, sir Perceval,
lets me use his piano when he's not around. He's
not around, isn't I can honestly say I haven't seen him?

Speaker 2 (04:25):
But come on in.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
The two continue the stick, gently poking fun of themselves
and the fleeting nature of fame.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Oh you're not the poor relation from the America.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Ah yeah, Sure, it travels fast, doesn't it. I'm being Oh,
I'm pleased to meet you. You're the one that sings right, well,
right or wrong? I sing either way? Oh I sing too?
Oh good? What kind of thing? Well?

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Mostly the contemporary stuff. Do you do you like mother music? Oh?

Speaker 2 (04:54):
I think it's marvelous. Some of it really fine. Tell
me you ever listen to any of the old fellows? Oh?

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, sure, I like John Lennon and the other one
with Harry Neilson.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
You'll go back that far?

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Huh. Yeah, I'm not as young as I look.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
None of us is these days.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
In fact, I've got a six year old son and
he really gets excited around the Christmas holiday thing.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Do you go in for any of the traditional things
in the boy.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Household Christmas town?

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Oh? Yeah, most of them really? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Presents, tree decorations, agents, sliding down a chimney. I was
just seeing if you're paying attention. Actually, our family do
most of the things that other families do. We sing
the same songs you I even ever go at? Why
Christmas you do? Eh? And this one? This is my
sound's favorite.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Do you know this?

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (05:43):
I do?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Indeed, it's a lovely thing.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
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 turns 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, Frazier, along with co writers

(06:08):
Buzz Coohen and Larry Grossman, did what artists and a
jam have always done. They improvised, creating an original song,
Peace 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,

(06:30):
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 well, 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

(06:52):
react to each other? What would it look like? What
on earth would it sound like? Crosby's daughter recalled a
moment that 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

(07:15):
them 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

(07:37):
Earth Little 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 being Crosby's Merry
Old Christmas aired on CBS. His widow Catherine did an

(07:58):
introduction as 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

(08:22):
number three in early nineteen eighty three. It was one
of the best selling singles of Bowie's entire career. Against
all odds, Peace 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,

(08:44):
and of course Crosby and Bowie two. 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 Mbing's unlikely Hollywood
duet here on our American Stories