Jump to content

Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Phono1877 (talk | contribs) at 09:34, 19 December 2012 (Corrected "especially", which is wrong here, to "specially".). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

"Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy"
Song
B-side"Fantastic Voyage" (David Bowie)

"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. "Little Drummer Boy" is a Christmas song written in 1941, while the "Peace on Earth" tune and lyrics, written by Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Alan Kohan, were added to the song specially for Bowie and Crosby's recording.[1]

Recording

The track was recorded on 11 September 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 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]

Crosby died on October 14, nearly five weeks after recording the special; in the U.S., the show aired just over a month later, on November 30, 1977, on CBS.

Release

The song was available for some years as a bootleg single backed with "Heroes",[4] which Bowie had also performed on the TV special. In 1982, RCA 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 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.[5] The flip-side of the single contained a Bing Crosby/Ella Fitzgerald duet of the song "White Christmas", recorded in 1953.[5] The single was limited to 2,000 copies.

Track listing

7": RCA / BOW 12 (UK)

  1. "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" (Larry Grossman, Ian Fraser, Buz Kohan / Katherine K. Davis, Henry Onorati, Harry Simeone) – 4:23
  2. "Fantastic Voyage" (David Bowie) – 2:55

Production credits

Producers
Musicians
  • 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.
  • 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 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.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Paul Farhi (20 December 2006). "Bing and Bowie: An Odd Story of Holiday Harmony", The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 December 2006.
  2. ^ David Buckley (1999) Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story, pp.327-328.
  3. ^ a b Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie, p.161.
  4. ^ Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record, p.117
  5. ^ a b Anderson, Sara (2010-10-29). "Bing Crosby, David Bowie 'The Little Drummer Boy / Peace on Earth' -- New Vinyl". AOL Radio Blog. AOLRadioBlog.com. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
  6. ^ [1] Video Retrieved 08 December 2010.
  7. ^ [2] Video Retrieved 13 December 2010.
  8. ^ McGlynn, Katla (22 December 2010). "WATCH: Jack Black Gets Messy Singing Carols With Jimmy Fallon". Huffington Post.
  9. ^ "The Pod F. Tompkast, EXTRASODE: PFT On Earth/Little Gruber Boy". http://pft.libsyn.com/ (Podcast). December 25, 2010. Retrieved December 25, 2010. {{cite podcast}}: External link in |website= (help)

References

Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2000, ISBN 1-903111-14-5

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peace_on_Earth/Little_Drummer_Boy&oldid=528777649"