Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy
| "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" | ||||||||
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| File:Single Peace On Earth-Little Drummer Boy cover.JPG | ||||||||
| Single by David Bowie & Bing Crosby | ||||||||
| from the album Bowie: The Singles 1969-1993 | ||||||||
| B-side | "Fantastic Voyage" (David Bowie) | |||||||
| Released | November 1982 | |||||||
| Format | 7"/12" single | |||||||
| Recorded | Elstree Studios, London September 11, 1977 |
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| Genre | Christmas | |||||||
| Length | 4:23 (UK) 2:32 (US) |
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| Label | RCA Records BOW 12 (UK) RCA Records PH-13400 (US) |
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| Writer(s) | David Bowie, Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, Alan Kohan / Harry Simeone, K.K. Davis, Henry Onorati | |||||||
| Producer(s) | David Bowie, Tony Visconti | |||||||
| David Bowie singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" (sometimes titled "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth") is a Christmas song with an added counterpoint performed by David Bowie and Bing Crosby. "The Little Drummer Boy" is a Christmas song written in 1941, while the "Peace on Earth" tune and lyrics, written by David Bowie, Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Alan Kohan, were added to the song specially for Bowie and Crosby's recording.[1]
Contents
Recording
The track was recorded on September 11, 1977 for Crosby's then-upcoming television special, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas. The pair exchanged scripted dialogue about what they each do for their family Christmases, before singing "Little Drummer Boy" with a new counterpoint with original lyrics written for the special, "Peace on Earth".
Bowie's appearance has been described as a "surreal" event, undertaken at a time that he was "actively trying to normalise his career".[2] He has since recalled that he only appeared on the show because "I just knew my mother liked him".[3] Buz Kohan was not sure that Crosby knew who Bowie was, but Ian Fraser claimed, "I'm pretty sure he did. Bing was no idiot. If he didn't, his kids sure did."[1]
According to co-writer Ian Fraser, Bowie balked at singing "Little Drummer Boy": "I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?", Fraser recalls Bowie telling him. Fraser, along with songwriter David Bowie, Larry Grossman and the special's scriptwriter, Buz Kohan, then wrote "Peace on Earth" as a counterpoint to "Little Drummer Boy". Crosby performed "Little Drummer Boy", while Bowie sang the new tune "Peace on Earth", which they reportedly performed after less than an hour of rehearsal.[1]
A few days after the taping, Crosby said of Bowie, "clean-cut kid and a real fine asset to the show. He sings well, has a great voice and reads lines well."[4]
Crosby died on October 14, nearly five weeks after recording the special at Elstree Studios near London; in the U.S., the show aired just over a month later, on November 30, 1977, on CBS. In the United Kingdom, the special first aired on December 24, 1977 on ITV. The timing led to rumors that the duet was "computer-generated."[5]
Release
The song was available for some years as a bootleg single backed with "Heroes",[6] which Bowie had also performed on the TV special. In 1982, RCA Records issued the recording as an official single, complete with the dialogue, arbitrarily placing "Fantastic Voyage" from the Lodger album on the B-side. Bowie was unhappy with this move, which further soured his already strained relationship with RCA, and he left the label soon after.[3] The single debuted on the UK singles chart in November 1982, and climbed to position number three on the chart, boosted by a 12" picture disc release. It has since become a perennial on British Christmas compilation albums, with the TV sequence also a regular on UK nostalgia shows.
In the United States, "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" became a staple on radio stations during the Christmas season. On November 14, 1995, Oglio Records released a special multimedia CD single of "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" which contained both standard full-length audio version and the full-length music video of the footage from the 1977 Christmas special accessible via CD-ROM drives.
On November 9, 2010, Collector's Choice Music released a 7-inch vinyl edition of "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" on red-colored vinyl in the United States.[7] The flip-side of the single contained a Bing Crosby/Ella Fitzgerald duet of the song "White Christmas", recorded in 1953.[7] The single was limited to 2,000 copies.
Track listing
7": RCA / BOW 12 (UK)
- "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" (David Bowie, Larry Grossman, Ian Fraser, Buz Kohan / Katherine K. Davis, Henry Onorati, Harry Simeone) – 4:23
- "Fantastic Voyage" (David Bowie) – 2:55
Production credits
- Producers
- Musicians
- David Bowie: Vocals, Piano on “Fantastic Voyage”
- Bing Crosby: Vocals
- Uncredited session players on “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy”
- Adrian Belew: Mandolin on “Fantastic Voyage”
- Dennis Davis: Percussion on “Fantastic Voyage”
- Tony Visconti: Backing vocals, Mandolin on “Fantastic Voyage”
- Brian Eno: Ambient drone on “Fantastic Voyage”
- Simon House: Mandolin on “Fantastic Voyage”
- Sean Mayes: Piano on “Fantastic Voyage”
Appearances in popular culture
- In 1997, DJ/comedian Bob Rivers included a parody entitled "Rummy Rocker Boy" on his album More Twisted Christmas, in which a generic heavy metal musician by the name of "Roach" visits a self-admitted "simulation" of Crosby.
- Craig Kilborn and Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü performed a parody of it on Comedy Central, aired as a short piece between shows during the Christmas season.
- In 2001, Anthony Rapp and Everett Bradley performed the song for the compilation album Broadway Cares - Home for the Holidays.
- A parody version was released on the internet as a Christmas present, sung by The Monarch (Jackson Publick) and Doctor Girlfriend (Doc Hammer), from the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros. The song stars The Monarch as David Bowie and Doctor Girlfriend as Bing Crosby. The tension and ambiguities of their relationship contribute to the performance's consonant mirroring of the old kid-vs.-new kid on the block artifice of Bowie's and Crosby's "banter."
- Aled Jones and Terry Wogan recorded a version for a CD entitled BandAged, which was released as part of the BBC Children in Need Appeal 2008. Warner Home Music released it as a single on 8 December 2008, and it reached a high of number three in the UK Singles Chart.
- A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! parodied this duet with a song sung by Stephen Colbert and Willie Nelson.
- A 2009 episode of SuperNews! parodied this song with Barack Obama and Joe Biden singing as Bing Crosby and David Bowie respectively.
- In a YouTube video that was released on December 18, 2009, internet comedians Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan superimposed the character of Baby Cookie from the Chad Vader series onto David Bowie, replacing his lines with Baby Cookie's unique speech.
- In December 2010, a number of comedians paired to perform or parody the song and video, including Jack Black and Jason Segel for College Humor;[8] Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly for Funny or Die;[9] Black again with Jimmy Fallon on the latter's Late Night talk show;[10] and Paul F. Tompkins with David 'Gruber' Allen.[11]
- Michael Bublé performed a version of this song.
- On the podcast Hollywood Babble-On, hosts Ralph Garman and Kevin Smith sing this song each Christmas. Smith sings Crosby's part, and Garman sings Bowie's counterpart.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Paul Farhi (20 December 2006). "Bing and Bowie: An Odd Story of Holiday Harmony", The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 December 2006.
- ↑ David Buckley (1999) Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story, pp.327-328.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie, p.161.
- ↑ http://yuleblog.us/features/bing-and-bowie/
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record, p.117
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ [1] Video Retrieved 08 December 2010.
- ↑ [2] Video Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
References
Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5
