David Bowie / Bing Crosby ~Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy

In September of 1977, Bing was finalising his CBS Christmas special, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas due to be aired that December.

Starring Bing and his family, the show would also welcome a roster of guests such as model Twiggy, actor Ron Moody, and Scottish comedian Stanley Baxter.

But the network wanted the Christmas special to appeal to a younger audience, and David Bowie seemed to fit the bill.

At the time he was "actively trying to normalise his career" and appeared on multiple television programmes to endear himself to the wider public again after disappearing into an experimental phase of his career.

After the show's music supervisors, Ian Fraser and Larry Grossman, suggested he sing a standard rendition of 'Little Drummer Boy' with Bing, Bowie flat out refused.

"I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?", Fraser recalled Bowie telling him.

Some quick thinking - in retrospect with a stroke of genius - resulted in Fraser, Kohan, and Grossman sourcing a piano in the studio's basement and wrote 'Peace On Earth' as a counterpoint to 'Little Drummer Boy'.

Kohan later recalled that it "all happened rather rapidly. I would say within an hour, we had it written and were able to present it to [Bowie] again."

Knowing that it'd make his mum happy (as well as Bing's family) he swiftly agreed to come on board, later saying that he chose to go ahead with the duet saying: "I just knew my mother liked him".