David Bowie Sends a Christmas Greeting in the Voice of Elvis Presley (and Sings “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You”)

After David Bowie died in 2016, we dis­cov­ered that the musi­cian had a knack for doing impres­sions of fel­low celebri­ties. Could he sing a song in the style of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Tom Waits, and Bruce Spring­steen? Turns out, he could. And yes, he could do an Elvis impres­sion too.

The clip above aired back in 2013 on “This Is Radio Clash,” a radio show host­ed by the Clash’s Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Top­per Head­on. “Hel­lo every­body,” this is David Bowie mak­ing a tele­phone call from the US of A. At this time of the year I can’t help but remem­ber my British-ness and all the jol­ly British folk, so here’s to you and have your­selves a Mer­ry lit­tle Christ­mas and a Hap­py New Year. Thank you very much.”

It’s maybe not as mem­o­rable as his 1977 Christ­mas duet with Bing Cros­by, but, hey, it’s still a fun lit­tle way to get the hol­i­day sea­son in swing.

Bonus: Below hear Bowie sing Pres­ley’s clas­sic “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You.” I had­n’t heard it before, and it’s a treat.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

David Bowie Sings Impres­sions of Bruce Spring­steen, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits & More In Stu­dio Out­takes (1985)

Watch Bing Crosby’s Final Christ­mas Spe­cial, Fea­tur­ing a Famous Duet with Bowie, and Bowie Intro­duc­ing His New Song, “Heroes” (1977)

Pro­duc­er Tony Vis­con­ti Breaks Down the Mak­ing of David Bowie’s Clas­sic “Heroes,” Track by Track

 


by | Permalink | Comments (3) |

Sup­port Open Cul­ture

We’re hop­ing to rely on our loy­al read­ers rather than errat­ic ads. To sup­port Open Cul­ture’s edu­ca­tion­al mis­sion, please con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion. We accept Pay­Pal, Ven­mo (@openculture), Patre­on and Cryp­to! Please find all options here. We thank you!


Comments (3)
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
  • Jon Gann says:

    Not sure if “I Can’t Help…” is real. Post­ed on YT by a guy that does celebri­ty imper­son­ations. Does­n’t feel legit.

  • Ardent Désir says:

    It’s obvi­ous­ly fake, any­one mis­tak­ing Ste­vie Rik’s voice for Bowie’s is clear­ly not a David Bowie fan.
    I hope this arti­cle removes that awful video.

  • Deeply Read says:

    Wow, dis­cov­er­ing David Bowie’s knack for celebri­ty impres­sions is like stum­bling upon a hid­den trea­sure. It’s incred­i­ble that even after his pass­ing in 2016, we con­tin­ue to uncov­er new facets of his tal­ent. Singing in the styles of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Tom Waits, Bruce Spring­steen, and doing an Elvis impres­sion – who knew Bowie was such a chameleon?

    The radio clip from “This Is Radio Clash” in 2013, where Bowie extends Christ­mas wish­es with that unmis­tak­able British charm, is a heart­warm­ing sur­prise. It might not sur­pass the leg­endary 1977 Christ­mas duet with Bing Cros­by, but it’s a tes­ta­ment to Bowie’s play­ful and ver­sa­tile nature.

    And stum­bling upon his ren­di­tion of Elvis’s “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” is a true delight. It’s moments like these that make you appre­ci­ate the depth of Bowie’s musi­cal genius.

    Hats off to Open Cul­ture for bring­ing these gems to light and keep­ing the mag­ic of Bowie alive. It’s a fan­tas­tic reminder of the endur­ing impact he had on music and the joy he con­tin­ues to bring, even posthu­mous­ly.

    https://deeplyread.blogspot.com

Leave a Reply

Quantcast