No, let's not, let's get on with the job in hand. The third best xmas song ever is...
David Bowie & Bing Crosby singing The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on earth.
I must confess my liking of this ditty is now somewhat marred by the Children In Need offering by Terry Wogan & Aled Jones. But at least their efforts underline the great job that David & Bing did. Don't ask me why I like it but I do - it felt somewhat different when it was released. Maybe it was the strikingly-odd combination of Bowie & Bing - the jagged-edge meets the silky-smooth; the thin white duke meets the Troubador. It was pipped to the post of the Xmas 1982 no.1 spot by, of all people, Renee & Renatta's 'Save your love' (actually, it made no.3 so was pipped by another song too, possibly Phil Collins' version of You Can't Hurry Love).
The previous year, Bowie had had a no.1 with another collaboration (hitting no.1 just before Christmas) - the superb 'Under Pressure' with Queen. Those who predicted an assault on the 1983 Christmas no.1 slot by a Bowie/Cliff Richard pairing were proved sadly wrong.
Crosby had died back in '77 so this was a posthumous hit, presumably recorded separately. A few weeks after his death, Alistair Cooke recalled an interview Bing gave to Barbara Walters in which she asked him to sum himself up. In Cooke's words:
He allowed that he had an easy temperament, a way with a song, a fair vocabulary, on the whole a contented life. And she said, 'Are you telling us that's all there is - a nice, agreeable shell of a man?' Bing appeared not to be floored. After the slightest pause for deep reflection, he said, 'Sure, that's about it. I have no deep thoughts, no profound philosophy. That's right. I guess that's what I am.'
I scarcely think Bowie would say the same of himself.
4 comments:
do you mean to imply their vocals were recorded on separate occasions?
Just to note they were both in the video for the song:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_zMhSjDqvRs
I may be wrong but I rather think that video is faked...
After long and painful reflection I have come to the conclusion that as a character I am unbelievably shallow.
In Bing's case shallowness sounds like a positive asset !
and the song's dreadful !
Well, it looks like the video is real (check this article out http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121901260.html).
So although it was released & charted in '82 it was recorded in '77.
Live ? Fancy !
How did they manage to make it look so faked ?
Poor Bing.
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