Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Bing and Bowie

Does anyone else remember this?
Bing Crosby and David Bowie sing a duet - The Little Drummer boy (1977)



Peace on Earth
Can it be?
Years from now
perhaps we'll see
See the Day of Glory
See the day when men of good will
live in peace
live in peace again
Peace on Earth
Can it be?

I pray my wish
will come true
for my child
and your child too
He'll see the Day of Glory
See the day when men of good will
live in peace
live in peace again
Peace on Earth
Can it be?
Can it be?

8 comments:

Talmida said...

Hee hee hee

I DO remember that one!! I am a huge Bing fan, and was surprised to discover that I kind of liked Bowie too. He was a bit too glam rock for my taste in my youth, but he kind of grows on you.

Bing? Mmmmm... a voice like 20 miles of freshly paved road.

crystal said...

No way! Really?

I like them both too. Holiday Inn is one of my favorite movies. Bowie made some fun movies too - Labyrinth, The Man Who Fell to Earth (I think?), The Hunger, etc.

But somehow them together just seems too weird :-)

Liam said...

Not as weird as David Sanborn, Toots Theilmann, Charlie Haden, and Nick Cave, but...

I remember this very well. I showed it on yourtune to IPAO last year at Christmas time.

Jeff said...

Yeah, Bing was smooth, real smooth. I give him a lot of credit for being open-minded and good-natured about the whole idea of singing with Bowie. They are an odd pair, but I guess that’s why they had the extended introduction and banter; to put Bing’s old blue-haired audience at ease…

I think it works pretty well, though. I thought Bowie did a really, really nice job with this. I didn’t like the whole Glam Rock thing either, but I cut Bowie some slack because he was such a Renaissance Man. He was talented in so many different ways. Considering that this was 1977, what amazes me is that he was able to come down off of a high for long enough to get this thing done so calmly and professionally.

Garpu said...

Did you make it home OK? It's pretty nasty out there.

Jeff said...

Garpu,

Less than an hour. It really wasn't too bad. Hardly anyone was left on the highway. :-)

cowboyangel said...

This is great. I like both, too. Though I do like Bowie's glam period - more than the later suff, actually. Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars! Too bad they didn't do a Christmas album.

Crystal, Bowie was in The Man Who
Fell to Earth - a film I loved when I was younger but haven't seen in a long time.

Good point, Jeff, about the intro and Bowie "coming down" to do this. But he was already out of the glam thing by then and heading into the Thin White Duke, which kind of fits Bing Crosby.

Jeff said...

William,

Did you hear the John Lennon and Harry Nilsson reference?. How clear he was of a "White Christmas", I'm not entirely sure...

I liked his Space Oddity stuff, actually. It's a good thing there's a way to look up lyrics online, otherwise I'd never know what the lyrics to Young Americans were.

Would you believe I heard this song in a shopping mall today? It sort of took the edge off of it for me.