Now I Know

I love this. Love it! The song's been on the radio for as long as I've lived in The Jungle. The radio station that plays Christmas music all month long mentioned that it was Bing Crosby and David Bowie but it wasn't until this year they gave the back story and it's actually pretty cool.

(This is horribly paraphrased from one hearing this morning.)

It was September, 1977 and Bing Crosby was planning his Christmas special from London, England. He had been producing these specials for nearly 30 years and was concerned about getting some younger viewers. He asked his "people" to find a rock and roll star who could croon. David Bowie was asked and accepted the invitation to sing with one of his idols. (It seems he was a fan of the Bing.) They met in the studio to film this segment - it was meant to be just The Little Drummer Boy - but David Bowie (can't shorten it to David, seems weird somehow) did not like how his voice sounded in the middle, so the music directors wrote the additional melody, Peace On Earth, right there in studio, they rehearsed for about an hour and then filmed it. In only three takes they perfected the scene and it was done. Less than a month later Bing Crosby finished eighteen holes of golf, had a heart attack and died walking off the green.

The Christmas special was aired right after Thanksgiving, 1977, as scheduled.

This is the segment:

This is me, and that's just awesome.