Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy

"Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy"
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
Genre Christmas
Length 4:23 (UK)
2:32 (US)
Label RCA Records BOW 12 (UK)
RCA Records PH-13400 (US)
Writer(s) Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, Alan Kohan / Harry Simeone, K.K. Davis, Henry Onorati
Producer(s) David Bowie, Tony Visconti
David Bowie singles chronology
"Cat People (Putting Out Fire)"
(1982)		 "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy"
(1982)		 "Let’s Dance"
(1983)
2010 US Reissue
2010 7" vinyl reissue by Collector's Choice Music

"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 Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Alan Kohan, were added to the song specially for Bowie and Crosby's recording.[1]

The single saw commercial success upon its release in 1982 and peaked at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. The single became one of David Bowie's best selling in his career, with total estimated sales over 400,000 in the UK alone.[2]

The song has since become a Christmas classic in the United States and United Kingdom and has been referred to by the Washington Post as "one of the most successful duets in Christmas music history".[3][4]

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".[5] He later admitted to having only appeared on the show because "I just knew my mother liked him".[6] 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]

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."[7]

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.

Release and commercial success

The song was available for some years as a bootleg single backed with "Heroes",[8] 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.[6]

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. The single proved to be one of David Bowie's fastest selling singles, having sales over 250,000 within its first month and being certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry one month after its release. The single has total estimated sales of 445,424 in the UK, giving Bowie one of his most successful singles.[2] 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 and Canada, "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.[9] The flip-side of the single contained a Bing Crosby/Ella Fitzgerald duet of the song "White Christmas", recorded in 1953.[9] The single was limited to 2,000 copies.

The single continues to chart in the Christmas season around North America and Europe. In 1998, the single reached a new peak of 2 on the Canadian Singles Chart.

Track listing

7": RCA / BOW 12 (UK)

  1. "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" (David Bowie, 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

Chart performance

Chart Peak position
Canadian Singles Chart (1998) 2 [15]
UK Singles Chart (1982) 3 [16]
US Billboard Hot 100 (2003) 43

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/Sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[17] Silver 250,000^

double-daggersales+streaming figures based on certification alone

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Paul Farhi (20 December 2006). "Bing and Bowie: An Odd Story of Holiday Harmony", The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 December 2006.
  2. 1 2 "Sorry". Musicweek.com. 2016-10-06. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
  3. ↑ "Bing and Bowie: An Odd Story of Holiday Harmony". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
  4. ↑ Dave Nemetz (2014-11-26). "The Story Behind Bowie and Bing's Offbeat Christmas Classic [Video]". Yahoo.com. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
  5. ↑ David Buckley (1999) Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story, pp.327-328.
  6. 1 2 Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie, p.161.
  7. ↑ "» The Accidental Classic". Yuleblog.us. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
  8. ↑ Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record, p.117
  9. 1 2 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.
  10. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-12-07. Retrieved 2010-12-08.
  11. ↑ "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy with Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly from Owen Burk". Funnyordie.com. 2010-12-12. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
  12. ↑ McGlynn, Katla (22 December 2010). "WATCH: Jack Black Gets Messy Singing Carols With Jimmy Fallon". Huffington Post.
  13. ↑ "The Pod F. Tompkast, EXTRASODE: PFT On Earth/Little Gruber Boy". Pft.libsyn.com/ (Podcast). December 25, 2010. Retrieved December 25, 2010.
  14. ↑ "Fallon "Lip Flip's" With Ricky Gervais". NBC New York. 2014-12-10. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
  15. ↑ "David Bowie | Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
  16. ↑ "peace+on+earth%2flittle+drummer+boy | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2016-11-13.
  17. ↑ "British single certifications – David Bowie & Bing Crosby – Little Drummer Boy". British Phonographic Industry. Enter Little Drummer Boy in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select single in the field By Format. Select Silver in the field By Award. Click Search

References

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

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