Bing’s Christmas TV Special of 1977
Bing Crosby was the face, the voice and the soul of Christmas for nearly 40 years. Through radio, movies and ground breaking television Crosby took Christmas to millions year after year.
Already an established radio star in the 1930s Crosby broke out in movies in the 1940s and established the standard of all gold standards of Christmas with his recording of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas in 1942. Even movies not really intended to be Christmas movies starring Crosby became Christmas classics. Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary’s showcased Bing’s acting talents as the golden-hearted Father O’Malley.
In the 1950s Crosby would release White Christmas as a Hollywood feature film and to follow would be even more iconic albums of Christmas and hits such as Christmas in Kilarney.
That’s when Bing discovered television and brought his brand of Christmas every year to screens across America.
Always a ground breaker, Crosby teamed up with David Bowie and together they made beautiful Christmas music together in this television special from 1977:
This one immediately brings me back to my childhood.
I remember watching that like it was yesterday. It was the eve of Xmas Eve, and my mother was out shopping, and I looked at it with my dad in our living room, dark except for the Xmas tree. I was the only Bing Crosby fan in high school (I had just seen him at the Uris Theater — now the Gershwin — some months before).