Bowie's Other Collaborations: Bing Crosby, Tina Turner, Arcade Fire, and More

Bing Crosby: Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy

The 1977 duet between David Bowie and Bing Crosby remains one of the most improbable and beloved collaborations in popular music history. Recorded on 11 September 1977 for Crosby's television special Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, the performance paired the 73-year-old crooner with the 30-year-old rock star in a rendition of “Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy.”

The duet was not entirely straightforward. Bowie reportedly disliked “Little Drummer Boy” and threatened to leave the set unless a new counterpoint melody was written for him. Songwriters Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Buz Kohan hastily composed “Peace on Earth” as a complementary melody that Bowie could sing alongside Crosby's traditional version. The result was a seamless blend of two musical worlds that has since become a perennial Christmas classic, broadcast and streamed millions of times annually.

The cultural significance of the duet extended beyond music. Seeing Bowie — who only a year earlier had been in the grip of cocaine addiction and performing as the controversial Thin White Duke— singing a Christmas carol with the embodiment of mid-century American wholesomeness demonstrated his remarkable ability to navigate between radically different cultural contexts.

Tina Turner: Tonight

Bowie's collaboration with Tina Turner produced one of the most electrifying live performances of the 1980s. Bowie wrote the song “Tonight” (which appeared on his 1984 album of the same name) and subsequently performed it with Turner during her Private Dancer Tour in 1985. Their joint performance at the NEC Birmingham, captured on Turner's Nice 'N' Rough concert video, showcased the volcanic energy that both performers brought to the stage.

Turner had earlier covered Bowie's “1984” on her Acid Queen album (1975), and the two maintained a warm professional relationship throughout the 1980s. Their shared ability to combine physical dynamism with vocal power made them natural stage partners, and their duet performances remain among the most celebrated concert moments of the decade.

Pat Metheny: This Is Not America

In 1985, Bowie collaborated with jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and the Pat Metheny Group on “This Is Not America,” a song written for the soundtrack of the Cold War espionage film The Falcon and the Snowman. The track represented an unusual pairing — Metheny's sophisticated jazz harmonics blended with Bowie's distinctive vocal style to create a mood piece that captured the disillusionment and moral ambiguity of the film's subject matter.

The song reached the UK Top 20 and performed well across Europe, demonstrating Bowie's ability to work effectively outside the conventional rock framework. For Metheny, the collaboration introduced his music to a broader audience, while for Bowie, it reinforced his credentials as an artist whose range extended beyond genre boundaries — a quality that would find its fullest expression in the jazz-influenced Blackstar three decades later.

Queen: Under Pressure

Although Under Pressure(1981) is perhaps Bowie's most famous collaboration, it merits mention alongside these other partnerships for the remarkable circumstances of its creation. The song emerged spontaneously during a session at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, where Queen were recording and Bowie happened to be visiting.

The resulting track — a meditation on the pressures of modern life, built on one of the most recognizable bass lines in rock history — reached number one in the UK and has become one of the defining songs of the 1980s. The collaboration between Bowie and Freddie Mercury produced a vocal dynamic that few other pairings could match, with both singers pushing each other toward increasingly dramatic and emotionally exposed performances.

Arcade Fire and Later Collaborations

Bowie's willingness to collaborate with younger artists continued into the twenty-first century. His most significant late-career partnership was with Arcade Fire, the Canadian indie rock band whose debut album Funeral(2004) had deeply impressed him. Bowie performed with the band at a Fashion Rocks benefit concert in 2005 and subsequently contributed vocals to their song “Reflektor” (2013).

The Arcade Fire connection demonstrated that Bowie remained engaged with contemporary music and was willing to support emerging artists whose work he admired. Win Butler, the band's frontman, later described Bowie's generosity and artistic curiosity as defining qualities of their interactions, noting that Bowie approached the collaboration as a creative equal rather than as a rock legend bestowing favor.

Other Notable Collaborations

Bowie's collaborative history extends well beyond these highlights. He contributed vocals to Scarlett Johansson's debut album (2008), recorded with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor during the Outside tour (1995), and performed with artists ranging from Marianne Faithfull to Placebo. He produced albums for Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, wrote hit songs for Mott the Hoople, and duetted with Mick Jaggeron the controversial “Dancing in the Street” (1985).

Each collaboration revealed a different facet of Bowie's artistic personality. Whether singing Christmas carols with Bing Crosby or performing alongside punk-influenced indie bands, he brought the same qualities to every partnership: genuine curiosity, creative generosity, and an instinct for finding unexpected common ground between disparate musical traditions.