In October 2021, when Primary Wave first acquired a stake in the Bing Crosby estate, members of the new guard sat down together and came up with two goals.
“One is: we want to make Bing the king of Christmas and the holidays, every season, every year,” recalls senior marketing director Jack LeVine. Bulletin board of the late pop icon, who delivered the definitive 20th-century renditions of “White Christmas” and other seasonal staples. “And it's two: simply exciting, educating and engaging a global and young audience around Bing and its directory.”
Nearly 7,000 miles away, the man who would prove key to both goals was in the midst of an era-defining career boom as part of South Korean boy band BTS, who brought renewed global attention to K-pop in 2021 with a thrilling string of sunny dance singles – most notably 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 “Butter” — dazzles audiences with stylish visuals and lively group choreography and enjoys the support of an ever-expanding, relentlessly passionate fanbase called ARMY. But while the artist known as V was, to the world, one of seven young men at the helm of the year's most sophisticated, cutting-edge contemporary pop dominance, the artist Kim Tae-hyung raised was, in private life, a reverent a fan of a very different genre: jazz.
And his favorite performer? Bing Crosby.
You could call it kismet, then, that three years later, V can now count his hero as a duet partner, their voices joined for generations and lifetimes in a remastered version of “White Christmas” – created by an ultra-rare recording found on Crosby's extensive personal archives, voice-isolation technology and remastered instruments — released Friday (Dec. 6). But the project is actually the result of Primary Wave's years of brainstorming, coordinating and consulting with Crosby's daughter Mary and son Harry on how to not just preserve the legacy of the iconic star, but promote it in a way that it changes with the season.
There are many, scattered moments in the story of how the new “White Christmas” came together that could be considered the starting point, from V's numerous posts about Bing's love over the years to the discovery of the recording by Primary Wave, a necessarily familiar 1950s radio rendition that's only been released in limited physical products before — and could be perfect for recreating of Crosby and David Bowie magic The 'Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy' duet that bridges the 1977 era, with the help of a new modern star. But the moment these two worlds came together was the most fateful: when Sarah Nekich of Primary Wave, digital engagement and audience, was scrolling X in her spare time and found a vlog posted by V in July 2022 on who sang Crosby's “It's Been a Long, Long Time” in his car. At that point, it had been months since the estate had considered the idea of the duo, with no clear choice as to who was fit to join the late legend on the track. But now?
“It was pretty perfect,” Nekich remembers when he saw V's video. “He just had a beautiful jazzy voice that sounds a lot like a young Bing Crosby. It was a no-brainer: These two are meant to be together in a song.”
The rest of the team—including Harry and Mary Crosby—were similarly impressed, and Primary Wave quickly landed in V's camp at HYBE x Geffen, who “were really receptive,” says Levine. The estate worked to create a proper sketch of what the duet with V would actually sound like in the mix, tapping veteran jazz and classic pop producer Gregg Field to oversee the music, while Nekich — having already reissued V's cover of “It's Been a Long, Long Time” on Bing Channels and I'm overwhelmed by a tidal wave of ARMY engagement in response – continued to interact with BTS fans on social media to keep their momentum going.
“The fact that V was such a big fan was so encouraging to us,” recalls Mary Crosby. “Until he came, the right person didn't exist. Because of V, dad will reach a completely different audience.”
The pieces were coming together, but connecting them would take longer than expected—especially as other projects repeatedly pushed the duo further and further down the to-do list. “The challenge with Christmas is that nobody thinks about it in January or February,” Levine explains with a laugh.
In late 2022, however, something lit a fire under the business. “The solo members of BTS have announced that they are enlisting [in the South Korean military]”, continues the executive. “There was a new sense of urgency. We were fighting against a deadline that we had no visibility into.”
If Field had been able to take his time building the song before, he certainly couldn't anymore. The producer – who has previously worked with John Williams and Herbie Hancock – put the track together using brand new instrumental arrangements by Rob Mounsey, recording rhythm section backings in Los Angeles and the orchestra and choir parts in Europe. Making everything fresh was necessary to make the final product palatable to “the ears of 2024,” says Field, as was the process of separating Crosby's vocal from the recording through iZotope's Music Rebalance technology, reviving it so that to sound “like it was recorded yesterday” — something like the musical equivalent of restoring old paintings or dilapidated buildings.
“That's a perfect analogy,” says Field Bulletin board of the process. “It strips away all the years of rawness and reveals what's there.”
The final piece of the puzzle was V's contribution, which he recorded remotely just before he shipped out in December 2023 for 18 months to complete his mandatory service. His raw talent struck a chord with Field. Says the producer, “The musical decisions [V] he did – he realized who he was singing with.'
When the mix was finally completed earlier this year, all Primary Wave had to do was keep the collaboration under wraps until finally announcing it in November, much to the delight of V's biggest champions. Nekich reports that his accounts Crosby have been inundated with heartfelt messages from ARMY since then, with the late crooner's following on X doubling “almost overnight” and the engagements skyrocketed by 300,000% within two weeks of the reveal.
Many of their comments, Nekich says, express genuine pride and happiness for V, who shared in a statement at the time of the announcement: “I feel incredibly lucky and honored to have sung along… with the voice of someone I consider an idol. ”
For Mary, the play represents everything that was important to her father in his life. “If you look at what Dad did in terms of technology, bringing voice to tape … he was always ahead of the game and always incredibly interested in musical experimentation,” he reflects. “This collaboration with V is kind of a continuation of that. Many people [from Bing’s era] they couldn't wrap their heads around it, but I think Dad would.'
As for whether her father, who died in 1977, would have chosen to duet with V if he were alive today, Mary says: “Dad would have had a chance.”
“She tried everything and sang with everyone,” adds the actress. “That set him off. There are so many popular singers who cite Bing Crosby as an influence, but Dad was always 100% ready to be influenced musically by someone else.”
With the track finally out to the world after three years in the making, Primary Wave has officially achieved the goals they set out at the start of their relationship with Crosby's estate. But galvanized by ARMY's amazing support and the realization that, through technology, more doors are opening for them than previously imagined, the team is ready to think even bigger. Nekich hopes the duet will become a “new Christmas classic” — one that serves as the starting point, not the end, of Crosby's relationship with V. And, “she'd love to see it go to its peak Bulletin board charts this Christmas — shooting for the stars.”
On that note, Levine also adds an unofficial third goal to the bulletin board. “Respect to the queen,” he says Bulletin board“But I hope we get past Mariah [Carey] this year.”
Listen to Bing Crosby's brand new version of “White Christmas” featuring BTS's V above.
