Bowie & Bing

Dear Charlie,

Here's another Christmas classic. David Bowie, who had spent the early part of the 1970s terrifying parents with his androgynous and deathly-pale Ziggy Stardust and Thin White Duke personas, and had spent most of decade as high as a kite, duetting with Bing Crosby the favourite light entertainer of every American grandparent (the original and most famous singer of "White Christmas", see below). Bowie, hoping to transform his image, tries to reassure everyone by talking early on about his son (not mentioning that at the time he was known as Zowie Bowie, but has now become a well-known film director called Duncan Jones), but Bing still doesn't look at him once during the performance! Unfortunately, Bing died before the programme was broadcast (it's true that he doesn't look too well), leading people to think there was a "Curse of Bowie", as it was the second time that year, 1977, that he had recorded a TV appearance with a star who had died before the broadcast, the other being the great Marc Bolan of T-Rex! Morbid details aside (and I'm sorry, I seem to have lots of them), the song's great. Strangely it wasn't released until 1982, when it reached N°3 in time for Christmas.
Mr Leah