BING AND HIS LAST CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

 Here is an advertisement for Bing Crosby's last Christmas special. It was aired after Bing's death. Bing looked frail but the voice was still there!

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: BING AND CHRISTMAS THROUGH THE YEARS

 Bing Crosby was and is definitely Mr. Christmas at this time of the year. No entertainer has sung more Christmas songs or had more Christmas hits than Der Bingle. Here are some great Christmas pictures through the years...

with Marjorie Reynolds

with Frank Sinatra

with David Bowie

With his 2nd family

With Rosemary Clooney

BING: THE FINAL CHAPTER

Bing's recording output began diminishing dramatically in the late 1960s. From 1969 through 1974 he recorded only two albums. One was a Christmas album ("A Time to be Jolly") and the other was with Count Basie and his orchestra ("Bing 'n' Basie"). Moreover, by the end of 1973 Bing was not well. He suffered from chest pains and fever. On New Year's Eve he felt so ill that he consented to be hospitalized. Both Bing and Kathryn thought he had lung cancer. On Jan. 13 a tumor the size of a small orange was removed from Bing's left lung. But the tumor was not cancerous. It was the result of a rare fungal infection that Bing had probably picked up on an overseas safari the previous year.

Bing's recovery was slow, but when he did recover he returned with a renewed vigor. He recorded 10 albums the last three years of his life and began performing live concerts again, which he had not done since World War II. During one of these concerts, a nationally-televised celebration of his 50th anniversary in show business in March 1977, Bing fell backwards into an orchestra pit and ruptured a disc in his back. He was hospitalized for a month, but in August resumed a hectic schedule. He flew to Oslo, Norway, to do a concert, and then to England to tape his Christmas special, "Bing Crosby's Merry Olde Christmas," which included Twiggy and David Bowie as guests. On Sept. 12-14 he recorded his final album, "Seasons," with the Pete Moore Orchestra.

Bing's next stop was a two-week engagement at the London Palladium with his family, comedian Ted Rogers and Rosemary Clooney. Then he and his troup moved on to Brighton where they performed their final concert on Oct. 10 to a sold-out theatre. The next day he dropped by the BBC studios as a guest on the Alan Dell radio show. Here he sang 8 songs with the Gordon Rose Orchestra. His last song was the nostalgic "Once in a While." BBC Records later released these recordings on disc, "Bing: The Final Chapter" (BBC-22398). Later that day Bing posed for pictures for his "Seasons" album, including the photo shown here. The next day Bing flew to Spain to play golf...

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WHAT DID BING THINK OF DAVID BOWIE?

Bing may have been somewhat aware 0f Bowie by word of mouth from a relative or colleague, but I doubt Bowie would have been on the Pop culture radar of the 73 year old Crosby, esp. when Pop culture wasn’t as widely disseminated as it is today.

A month after the special featuring their duet, Crosby was dead of a heart attack. The special was broadcast on CBS about a month after his death.

"Peace on Earth," an original tune that Bowie sings an arrangement that weaved “Little Drummer Boy together was written in about 75 minutes, Bowie and Crosby nailed the performance with less than an hour of rehearsal.

It's unclear, however, whether Crosby had any idea who Bowie was.

If anyone has definitive clues as to what Bing thought of David Bowie, I would be interested in hearing your comments...

IAN FRASER, BING'S LAST MUSICAL DIRECTOR DIES

Ian Fraser, whose 11 Emmy Awards and 21 additional nominations made him the most-honored musician in television history, died of complications from cancer Friday morning at his home in Los Angeles. He was 81.

All of Fraser’s Emmy noms and wins were in the music direction category, for supervising and conducting television specials, including 14 of the annual “Christmas in Washington” events over the past 30 years.

Fraser was also in his 10th term as a governor of the Television Academy. He conducted the 1984, 1993 and 2002 Emmy shows, as well as the 1984 Oscar telecast, and served as musical director for many of the TV Academy’s Hall of Fame ceremonies.

He was also nominated for a 1970 Oscar for adapting Leslie Bricusse’s song score for “Scrooge.”

Fraser had long professional relationships with Bricusse as well as with Julie Andrews and with Anthony Newley.

Fraser was born in Hove, England, in 1933, and served in the Royal Artillery band and orchestra as pianist, harpist and military-band percussionist. In the late 1950s he worked as a pianist in London nightclubs and began a career as an arranger.

He first worked with singer-songwriter Anthony Newley in 1960, arranging his songs and adapting his theatrical ventures including, with Bricusse, “Stop the World — I Want to Get Off,” which he supervised and orchestrated for Broadway in 1962.

Also for Broadway, he later conducted Bricusse’s “Pickwick” in 1965 and Henry Mancini and Bricusse’s stage version of their film hit “Victor/Victoria” in 1995.

His film career began in 1965 as vocal supervisor for the musical “Doctor Dolittle” and as associate musical supervisor on “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” both of which sported Bricusse song scores.

Fraser’s professional association with Julie Andrews started with his work as vocal arranger for her 1972 ABC variety series. They later did five TV specials, two Christmas albums and two Broadway albums together, with Fraser arranging and conducting the music.

He served as musical director on dozens of TV specials beginning in the mid-1970s, many of them produced by the team of Dwight Hemion and Gary Smith.

He won Emmys for “America Salutes Richard Rodgers,” “Ben Vereen: His Roots,” “Baryshnikov on Broadway,” Linda Lavin’s “Linda in Wonderland,” “SAG 50th Anniversary Celebration,” two of the “Christmas in Washington” specials, “Julie Andrews: The Sound of Christmas,” a “Great Performances” Julie Andrews concert, the “American Teacher Awards” and the “52nd Presidential Inaugural Gala.”

Fraser was the last person to conduct “White Christmas” for Bing Crosby, on Crosby’s final TV special in 1977. He also scored several films including “Hopscotch,” “First Monday in October” and “Zorro, the Gay Blade.”

Survivors include his wife Judee, three children, five grandchildren, a brother and a sister.

Donations may be made to the American Cancer Society or Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer...

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BEHIND THE SCENES OF BING AND BOWIE

BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) — David Bowie's duet with Bing Crosby on the entertainer's 1977 Christmas television special left an indelible impression on Crosby's teenage children.

Harry, Mary and Nathaniel Crosby were on set when Bowie arrived to tape his appearance. The mash-up between the cardigan-clad singer known for "White Christmas" and the glam rocker who was in his Ziggy Stardust phase required some last-minute reworking of "The Little Drummer Boy."

The result was a new melody and lyrics called "Peace on Earth." The duet remains a holiday staple and a curiosity. Bowie was 30 and Crosby was 73 at the time. Crosby died of a heart attack a month after the taping in September 1977.

Mary Crosby remembered Bowie arriving on set.

"The doors opened and David walked in with his wife. They were both wearing full-length mink coats, they have matching full makeup and their hair was bright red," she told the summer TV critics' tour Wednesday. "We were thinking, 'Oh my god.'"

Nathaniel Crosby added, "It almost didn't happen. I think the producers told him to take the lipstick off and take the earring out. It was just incredible to see the contrast."

Watching in the wings, the Crosby kids noticed a transformation.

"They sat at the piano and David was a little nervous," Mary Crosby recalled. "Dad realized David was this amazing musician, and David realized Dad was an amazing musician. You could see them both collectively relax and then magic was made."

The Crosby siblings — now all in their 50s — and their 80-year-old mother, Kathryn, made a rare public appearance together Wednesday to discuss the American Masters episode, "Bing Crosby Rediscovered," airing Dec. 2 on PBS...

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BING AND DAVID BOWIE

Bing and Bowie—The Story Behind the Song—Peace on Earth and Little Drummer Boy
By Gary Shannon 3 days ago

It was in September of 1977 that Bing Crosby began filming what would be his last Christmas special. Bing, whose recording of “White Christmas” was, and still is, the best selling record of all time, had become a sort of symbol of Christmas and his yearly Christmas TV specials were always a big favorite.

As was the custom back then, stars like Bing Crosby or Andy Williams would always include a contemporary artist as one of the special guest. Exactly how that year’s special guest came to be David Bowie is a mystery. Someone in Crosby’s stable must have thought it would be a unique idea to have Bowie teamed with Bing.

The duet between host and guest star was a standard in those days. The problem was, that Bowie didn’t like the song, “Little Drummer Boy.” So, plan “B” went into action and thus was born a very famous duet.

When Bowie announced he didn’t really want to sing “Little Drummer Boy”, production on the filming of the special went into emergency mode. The task of writing something Bowie might like fell to composers Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman and Alan Kohan.

Legend has it that the trio of composers went to the NBC studio piano and wrote the song “Peace on Earth”, to be sung as a counter-point melody with “Little Drummer Boy.” They played the song for Bowie who gave it his approval and one hour later the cameras rolled and history, of a sort, was made.

The response to the duet was fantastic. A bootleg copy of the performance made it’s way to radio and the song has been played annually since then.

I’ve heard that Bing enjoyed the duet with Bowie. Many people have wondered if Bing Crosby was even aware of Bowie as a performer. One insider told an interviewer that Crosby was still up on music and no doubt knew who Bowie was even if he learned from his kids.

Kind of sad to say that Bing never got to see this Christmas Special. One month after the show was filmed, Bing Crosby died of a heart attack on a golf course in Spain...

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BING AND 1977

Bing Crosby returned to world headlines when he fell into a twenty-foot-deep orchestra pit while taping a CBS special commemorating his fiftieth anniversary in the entertainment business at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, California March 3, 1977. Although grabbing for a piece of scenery helped to break his fall, it was found that he had ruptured a disc at the base of his spine. He underwent a prolonged recuperation. At his age, it was hard to determine how he would be affected. Eleven weeks after the accident, however, he appeared on the Barbara Walters Special, doing a little dance step with Barbara as they walked arm-in-arm and, because it was drizzling, singing a few bars of "Singing in the Rain."

He returned to the gold course in short order and his "Bing Crosby and Friends" did a concert at Concord, California in mid-August as a tune-up for a planned tour of Norway, Sweden, and England. The troupe performed at Momarkedet August 25 in a benefit for the Norwegian Red Cross. In September Bing taped his last Christmas special, his forty-second (going back to radio), in London for CBS. The program, titled Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas and featuring guest star David Bowie, was aired on November 30. He also found time to record his last album, Seasons, with British producer Ken Barnes; it would become his twenty-fourth gold record.

"Bing Crosby and Friends" opened September 26 at the London Palladium, playing to sell-out crowds through October 10. Variety published the following review of the show: "Undoubtedly, the highlight of this two and a half hour show, in for two weeks at this vaud flagship, is a stint when Bing Crosby and the Joe Bushkin Quartet glide smoothly through a medley of chestnuts including "White Christmas" and an up-beat arrangement of "Old Man River"….[Crosby] always looked relaxed and confident, whether gagging with the capacity audience, duetting with wife, Kathryn, or son, Harry, or singing along with Rosemary Clooney….The audience was predominantly middle-aged to elderly, and much of Crosby’s show is designed to take advantage of the singer’s tremendous nostalgia appeal."

On October 13 Crosby flew to Spain for golf and game shooting. His wife and family employee Alan Fisher remained behind to help Harry, Jr. get settled in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, where he would be a student for the next three years. At the La Moraleja Golf Club the next day, he challenged Valentin Barrios, the former Spanish champion, and Cesar de Zulueta, president of the club. Teamed with Manuel Pinero, then Spanish champion, Bing was reportedly in the best of humor, joking and singing throughout the match, which they won by one stroke. He collapsed from a massive heart attack while walking away from the eighteenth hole. He passed away without regaining consciousness as an ambulance was taking him to the Red Cross Hospital in Madrid.

Television stations in Spain interrupted their programs with the news, and word quickly spread across the globe. Tributes immediately began pouring in from a vast number of friends and admirers. President Jimmy Carter offered the following eulogy:

"For all the roads he traveled in his memorable career, Bing Crosby remained a gentleman, proof that a great talent can be a good man despite the pressures of show business. He lived a life his fans around the world felt was typically American: successful, yet modest; casual, but elegant."

His crooning rival, Frank Sinatra, would comment, "Bing’s death is almost more than I can take. He was the father of my career, the idol of my youth, and a dear friend of my maturity. His passing leaves a gaping hole in out music and in the lives of everybody who ever loved him. And that’s just about everybody. Thank god we have his films and his records providing us with his warmth and talent forever.".

Even now, thirty five years after his sad passing, Bing Crosby's death is felt by anyone who picks up a microphone and croons or anyone that is a fan of truly great music. Bing Crosby's legacy is a distant memory now in 2012, but what he gave to his fans and the entertainment wolrd in general will never be forgotten...

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BING AND HIS CHRISTMAS SPECIALS

Christmas programs from years past
By Mack Williams

At Thanksgiving, I watched Lady GaGa’s Thanksgiving special (solely out of curiosity, of course) and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t filled with crazily styled outfits or a scarcity of cloth in the clothing’s design. The “diva” aspect was toned down, and the program had the look and feel of one of those old variety show Christmas specials of the 1950s and ’60s.

There were many Christmas specials of the variety-show format in those days. It was a staple of programming back then, and as its name implied, the content was varied. It seemed kind of like a descendant of vaudeville and had included in its roster some of those performers who began their careers in that earlier medium. One such was the great Jimmy Durante, whom I always associate with “September Song” and “Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!” He, of course, revisits us each year at Christmastime as the narrator of the cartoon “Frosty the Snowman.”

Bing Crosby’s Christmas specials were something to never be missed. (Actually, anything with Crosby in it was special, just due to the fact of his presence.) Jackie Gleason’s Christmas offering, complete with the June Taylor Dancers, was another good variety production. Mentioned last, but not least, I must confess that I greatly enjoyed and never missed the Christmas specials provided by Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Music Makers (even now on their re-runs on PBS).

In looking back on those days, I realize that one of the best of the Christmas specials was not broadcast into “TV land” but could be purchased for a small sum of money and only heard on an entertainment device that predated television by many years: the phonograph. The company that produced this concert also produced other products from petroleum, and its name was Firestone. We referred to this medium as records, because back then, there was no need to make a distinction as there is now between vinyl, tape or CD. Tape players were in their infancy, and CDs were years in the future, so the proper term was “records.”

I recall listening to those annual Christmas “concerts” on the floor-model hi-fi in our old living room, just off of the Old Concord Road. I seem to remember the “Firestone Christmas Album” as well as Goodyear’s “Great Songs of Christmas” being sold at Salisbury’s old W.T. Grant Company where my mother worked. Some of the performers included in those varied seasonal collages were: Bing Crosby; Burl Ives; Andy Williams; Robert Merrill; Richard Tucker; Harry Belafonte; Lena Horne; Mitch Miller with his orchestra and chorus (since this was audio, the “bouncing ball” was left to the imagination); The Mormon Tabernacle Choir; Peter, Paul and Mary; Mahalia Jackson; Roger Williams; The Ray Conniff Singers and many more.

Once the televised Christmas special was over (in which a few of these same artists were included, but not as many, as the cost would have probably made it prohibitive), it couldn’t be seen again, as videotape recorders had not yet made their advent in those Christmases of the early 1960s. The local church choirs would then move on to the music appropriate to the following seasons of the church year, not returning to Christmas music again until the earth had come back around to that same approximate place in its orbit as when such music had been previously heard.

As opposed to the Christmas television special and the church Christmas cantata, one could hear the soloists, choristers and orchestras of the Firestone Christmas Album over and over, presumably having one’s own “Christmas in July” (minus the sales) if so desired.

The automotive wheels of Firestone are exceptionally well-made, with treads that make traction with the road. Those other Firestone “wheels,” turning on the turntable of our old, floor-model hi-fi, had the tiniest of “treads” which made the music of Christmas.

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BING MEETS DAVID BOWIE

Peace on Earth, can it be? When David Bowie posed that musical question to Bing Crosby 33 years ago, a generation of young TV viewers watching in amazement asked another question: Did that really just happen? Was the Thin White Duke actually singing a heartfelt duet with the "White Christmas" dude? Those who saw Crosby's 1977 holiday special - or MTV's frequent airings of the video clip - still remember how unusual that moment seemed. The premise is that guest-star Bowie is stopping by the English manor where Crosby is staying. They share some corny dialogue - "'ello, you the new butler?" the rock star asks with perfect timing - before discussing yuletide traditions. Then they launch into the majestic "Little Drummer Boy," with Bowie quickly segueing into the sweet, soaring counterpoint of "Peace on Earth."

To understand the impact of this musical detente, you would have to imagine Lady Gaga singing with Andy Williams for a 2010 special - which actually doesn't sound that outlandish anymore. These days, there are plenty of successful culture clashes, like Tony Bennett's duets with Sting and Bono. But back then, Bowie's avant-garde rock style - his "Heroes" video was featured on the same special - was considered as far from Crosby's mainstream crooning as Pluto is from the sun. Having them perform together was a landmark instance of pop-culture worlds colliding. And it worked. In the years that followed, the weirdly beautiful moment - which aired not long after Crosby's death - became the stuff of legend, fondly remembered and, eventually, lovingly parodied by several very funny people.

During his "Daily Show" era in the 1990s, Craig Kilborn did a sarcastic version with Bob Mould, where it sounds like the former Husker Du front man asks Kilborn if he's "the new Bill Maher." Dave Foley of "Kids in the Hall" fame did a fantastic Bowie impression in a skit for his 2002 "The True Meaning of Christmas Specials" on CBC that cast Joe Flaherty as Crosby. It alters the lyrics about peace so that Bowie sings, "Where do the monsters go at Christmas?" And it ends with a nasty argument between the two where Crosby insists on mispronouncing Bowie's name and questions his masculinity. Recently, two parody versions from comedy all-stars debuted on the Web. In a takeoff that appears on CollegeHumor.com, Jason Segel and Jack Black sing the duet with nice sincerity as themselves, except they're animated characters who gather at a rustic log piano and float briefly through a sunlit sky.

In the other, done for FunnyorDie.com, Will Ferrell is Bowie and John C. Reilly is Crosby in an elaborate, virtual word-for-word re-creation of the original. It's almost exactly like the real thing, from the clothing and set to the goofy script. "You're the one that sings, right?" Ferrell asks, just as Bowie did. "Well, right or wrong, I sing either way," says Reilly, relishing the pun. But there is a new ending - some bleeped expletives are exchanged between Ferrell and Reilly when Bowie corrects Crosby for getting his name wrong. In the 1977 special, there was no fighting. Peace on Earth - or at least on television - was achieved.

The Bowie-Crosby summit wasn't as big as the Beatles appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show," but maybe it was a turning point of sorts. These days, celebrities from different genres frequently bridge the generation gap. Betty White gives Jon Hamm dance lessons in an Emmy skit. William Shatner works with Ben Folds on an album. John McCain and Snooki are Twitter pals. And they have Bowie and Crosby to thank, in a small way. At least, I hope that is right. Right or wrong, their duet is still making people jolly during the holidays.

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