David Bowie Agreed to Bing Crosby Duet Because His Mom Loved the American Singer, but 1 Problem Almost Derailed the Deal
- - David Bowie Agreed to Bing Crosby Duet Because His Mom Loved the American Singer, but 1 Problem Almost Derailed the Deal
Meredith WilshereDecember 27, 2025 at 8:30 PM
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Bing Crosby and David Bowie -
David Bowie almost walked away from his famous and unlikely duet with Bing Crosby
The rock singer agreed to the duet because his mom loved Crosby
For Bowie to agree, the writers of the Merrie Olde Christmas special had to make tweaks to the song
The now-iconic duet between Bing Crosby and David Bowie almost didn’t happen. Filmed for Crosby’s 1977 holiday special, Merrie Olde Christmas, there was one big reason that Bowie almost walked away.
Despite the fact that his mother loved Crosby, Bowie had an objection to the original song they pitched him, according to PBS.
TV Times via Getty
Singers Bing Crosby (L) and David Bowie
“We had decided that we wanted them to do a duet of a ‘Little Drummer Boy,’ and when we told Bowie about the number, he said, ‘I won’t sing that song.' We said, ‘Why?’ and he said, ‘I hate that song,'" Larry Grossman, writer for Merrie Olde Christmas, recalled.
"He said, ‘If I have to sing that song, I can’t do the show,'" the writer added.
Grossman recalled Bowie saying that he was only “doing the show because my mother loves Bing Crosby.”
So, they had to change the original plan for the 1977 PBS Christmas special, making the duet a mash-up with "Peace on Earth."
“We decided the best way to salvage the arrangement was to do a counter melody that would fit in between the spaces and maybe write a new bridge and see if we can sell him that,” Buz Kohan, co-writer of Merrie Olde Christmas alongside Grossman, explained.
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Bing Crosby and David Bowie
“Within an hour, we had it written, and we were able to present it to him again,” Kohan said. “Bing loved the challenge, and he was able to transform himself without losing any of the ‘Crosby-isms’ — that relaxed feeling and the atmosphere that he would always create whenever he was on camera.”
While the Christmas special was taped in September 1977, Crosby died of a heart attack just five weeks later at the age of 74. The hour-long program aired posthumously at the end of November in the United States and on Christmas Eve in England.
The song "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" was eventually released as a single by RCA Records in November 1982, and it peaked at No. 3 on the United Kingdom Singles chart, making it Crosby’s final popular hit. The song was also a success for Bowie, with a total estimated sales of over 400,000 in the UK alone.
In addition to Bowie, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas featured performances and appearances by Twiggy, Ron Moody, Stanley Baxter, the Trinity Boys Choir, and members of the Crosby family.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
