Swan Dive

It was the unlikeliest of duets. A surreal mash-up of an old-guard crooner with a glam rocker. Der Bingle meets Ziggy Stardust. And it might never have happened if it weren’t for some eleventh-hour song doctoring.

On September 11, 1977, David Bowie arrived at Elstree Studio in London to tape a segment for Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas TV Special. The producers planned to have Bowie and Bing harmonize on “Little Drummer Boy.” But during the rehearsal, Bowie complained that the song’s range was too low and didn’t properly highlight his voice. Bing quickly defused the diva moment, suggesting that they alter the arrangement or choose another song.

According to Crosby’s daughter Mary, Bing wanted all of his guests to feel at ease. “That’s how Dad was. It was totally genuine. He wasn’t worried. And if he was worried, he didn’t show it. He just wanted to make him comfortable. David said, ‘I need to sing the melody because I can’t do that key.’ And Dad just said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to get in there somehow.’”

With just a few hours before the cameras were to roll, three of the show’s producers and writers, Buz Kohan, Ian Fraser and Larry Grossman, left the set and found a piano in the studio’s basement. In seventy-five minutes, they wrote “Peace On Earth,” an original tune that acted as a clever counterpoint to “Little Drummer Boy.”

Bowie liked it. Bing did too.

“You could see them both just kind of going, ‘Oh this is gonna be fine,’ recalled Mary Crosby.

After some scripted banter and a few run-throughs, the pair nailed the take that we all know and love. A month later, Crosby died of a heart attack. The special was broadcast on CBS that December as a final tribute to the singer who was the voice of Christmas.

And that might have been that. As Buz Kohan has said, “We never expected to hear about the song again.”

But in the years since, it has slowly grown into a bonafide Christmas classic and a YouTube holiday staple with millions of views.

“It’s because music of the kind of my dad did – and I think that David did – transcends all generations and all cultures and countries,” Mary Crosby said.