Everyone has heard the Bing Crosby-David Bowie version of Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy, a Christmas favorite. Forty-one years after the debut of this tune, Neumann University has used it as inspiration for a holiday video.
In the three-minute production, Dr. Chris Domes, the university’s president, falls asleep while watching the Crosby-Bowie duet and dreams of Neumann’s version of the classic song, performed by students as a Christmas gift to all of the university’s friends and neighbors.
Behind the scenes, Neumann students handled all elements of production, from videography to lighting and sound.
An interesting note about the original duet is that it almost never occurred. According to a 2006 article in The Washington Post, “Bowie, who was 30 at the time, and Crosby, then 73, recorded the duet Sept. 11, 1977, for Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas TV special. A month later, Crosby was dead of a heart attack. The special was broadcast on CBS about a month after his death.”
