<http://youtube.com/watch?v=7b6KjR3OvEw&mode=related&search=>
http://www.thestar.com/artsentertainment/article/164176
How Bing and Bowie made a Christmas classic
Last-minute changes to "Little Drummer Boy" resulted in the duet "Peace
on Earth"
One of the most successful duets in Christmas music history ¡V and surely
the weirdest ¡V might never have happened if it weren't for some
last-minute musical surgery. David Bowie thought "The Little Drummer
Boy" was all wrong for him. So when the producers of Bing Crosby's
Christmas TV special asked Bowie to sing it in 1977, he balked.
Just hours before he was supposed to go before the cameras, though, a
team of composers and writers frantically retooled the song. They added
another melody and new lyrics as a counterpoint to all those
pa-rumpa-pum-pums and called it "Peace on Earth." Bowie liked it. More
important, Bowie sang it.
The result was an epic, and epically bizarre, recording pairing David
Bowie, the androgynous Ziggy Stardust, with none other than Mr. "White
Christmas" himself, Bing Crosby.
In the intervening years, the Bowie-Crosby, "Peace on Earth/Little
Drummer Boy," has been transformed from an oddity into a holiday
chestnut. You can hear it in heavy rotation on Christmas-music radio
stations or see the performance on Internet video sites. First released
as a single in 1982, it still sells today; to add to its quirky
afterlife, it's part of an album that's ranked as high as No. 3 on the
Canadian charts this month. How did this almost surreal mash-up of the
mainstream and the avant-garde, of cardigan-clad '40s-era crooner and
glam rocker happen?
It almost didn't. Bowie, who was 30 at the time, and Crosby, then 73,
recorded the duet Sept. 11, 1977, for Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas TV
special. A month later, Crosby was dead of a heart attack. The special
was broadcast on CBS about a month after his death.
The notion of the Crosby-Bowie pairing apparently was the brainchild of
the special's producers Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion, according to Ian
Fraser, who co-wrote (with Larry Grossman) the song's music and arranged
it.
The theme of the TV special was Christmas in England. Bowie was one of
several British guest stars (the model Twiggy and Oliver! star Ron Moody
also appeared). Booking Bowie made logistical sense. As perhaps an added
inducement, the producers agreed to air the arty video of Bowie's
then-current single, "Heroes" (Crosby introduced it).
But Buz Kohan, who wrote the special and worked with Fraser and Grossman
on the music, says he was never sure Crosby knew anything about Bowie's
work. Fraser diagrees: "I'm pretty sure he did (know). Bing was no
idiot. If he didn't, his kids sure did."
Kohan worked some of the intergenerational awkwardness into his script.
In a skit that precedes the singing, Bowie casually picks out a piece of
sheet music of "The Little Drummer Boy" and says, "This is my son's
favourite."
The original plan had been for Bowie and Crosby to sing just "Little
Drummer Boy." But "David came in and said: `I hate this song. Is there
something else I could sing?'" Fraser said. "We didn't know quite what
to do."
Fraser, Kohan and Grossman left the set and found a piano in the
studios' basement. In about 75 minutes, they wrote "Peace on Earth," an
original tune, and an arrangement weaving the two songs. Bowie and
Crosby nailed the performance with less than an hour of rehearsal.
And that was almost that. "We never expected to hear about it again,"
Kohan said. But after the recording circulated as a bootleg for five
years, RCA issued it as a single and it has since been packaged in
numerous Christmas compilations and released as a DVD.
--
-Jeff B. (Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas)
zoomie at fastmail dot fm