I found out this morning that Peace On Earth, which David Bowie sang in a duet with Bing Crosby, was recorded on 9/11

[highplainsdem]

of 1977.

Discovered that when I started a reply to a thread in GD: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219849113#post4

Copying that here, with the video I was commenting on...

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The 6-year-old son David mentioned there is 53 now, and on Twitter. Delightful guy to chat with online. Funny and very talented (he's a filmmaker).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Jones

And Duncan is a very doting father - as David was.

This video was recorded on 9/11/1977, for Bing Crosby's Christmas show. Which Bing didn't live to see. He passed away a month and three days later - 10/14/1977.

Which was the same day Bowie's album Heroes was released - though the single that gave its title to the album had been released on September 23.

The day after the album was released - the day after Bing's death - David was in the Netherlands, recording an appearance for the Dutch series TopPop. I realized looking at the video with Bing - how David looked there - that it had to have been close to that Dutch TV appearance, and I found out when I checked that it was.

That second song isn't from Heroes, but from the previous album, Low.


Twenty-four years after that appearance with Bing was filmed, on the date we'll always associate with 9/11, David was once again working with the producer of those albums, Tony Visconti. They were at Allaire studios in the Catskills, working on songs for what became Heathen, Bowie's 23rd studio album.

Tony wrote in his autobiography:

When it grew dark we stepped out on the veranda and looked south; New York was 100 miles away, yet we could see a giant orange glow in the dark southern sky. The inferno of Ground Zero was visible for another five nights.

I've wandered away from the Christmas theme here...but I didn't realize till I saw the Wikipedia article on Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy this morning just what day it had been recorded.

Peace On Earth had been written especially for that Christmas show, and 9/11/1977 was probably the first time it was recorded.

Peace on Earth, can it be?
Years from now, perhaps we'll see.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. It wasn't released as a single until five years later. Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Last edited Wed Dec 25, 2024, 03:54 PM - Edit history (1)

Wed Nov 27, 2024: On this day, November 27, 1982, David Bowie and Bing Crosby's "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" was released.

[highplainsdem]

2. Thanks for the extra info! And happy holidays!