Do They Know It's Christmas?

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Cover art for the original "Do They Know It's Christmas?" release – artist Peter Blake
Cover art for the original "Do They Know It's Christmas?" release – artist Peter Blake

Do They Know It's Christmas? is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 specifically to raise money for Ethiopian famine relief. The original version was produced by Midge Ure and Trevor Horn, and released by Band Aid on December 3, 1984.

In late 1984, a BBC report by Michael Buerk was aired highlighting the famine that had hit the people of Ethiopia. Irish singer Bob Geldof had seen the report and was moved so much that he decided that a pop record should be used to further increase awareness of the famine and to raise money. Aware that he could do little on his own, he called Midge Ure from Ultravox and together they quickly co-wrote the song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?".

Geldof kept a November appointment with BBC Radio 1 DJ Richard Skinner to appear on his show, but instead of discussing his new album (the original reason for his booking), he used his airtime to publicise the idea for the charity single, so by the time the musicians were recruited there was intense media interest in the subject.

Using powers of persuasion which have since become a major part of the Geldof legend, he put together a group (Band Aid), consisting of leading Irish and British rock and pop musicians, all of whom were at the very top of the industry.

Contents

[edit] The recording session

The recording studio gave Band Aid 24 hours free to record and mix the song on November 25, 1984. The recording took place between 11.00 am and 7.00 pm, and was filmed to release as the single's music video. The first track to be put down was drums by Phil Collins including the memorable opening 'African Drum' beat. But in reality, the introduction of the song features a slowed down sample from a Tears for Fears' track called "The Hurting". Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet was the first to record his vocal while a section sung by Status Quo was deemed unusable and replaced with the Paul Weller/Sting/Glenn Gregory section. Paul Young has admitted since in a documentary that he knew his opening lines were written for David Bowie, who was not able to make the recording but made a contribution to the B-side. Boy George arrived last at 6pm after Geldof woke him up by phone to have him flown over from New York on Concorde to record his solo part.

[edit] Participants

The original Band Aid ensemble consisted of (in sleeve order):

[edit] Style and content

According to its co-authors, the lyrics were largely written by Bob Geldof while Midge Ure is responsible for the melody and vocal arrangement. The song comprises two parts: a verse and bridge which allow individual singers to perform different lines; and a chorus in the form of two repeated phrases by ensemble. The chorus was added by Midge Ure shortly before the recording session and is similar in style to many of his Ultravox songs (such as 'Hymn').

[edit] Lyrics

The first line of the recording is sung by Paul Young on the 1984 version, Kylie Minogue on the 1989 version, and Chris Martin on the 2004 version. The line was originally written for David Bowie who finally sang it at the Live Aid concert. See the Band Aid article for the full list of contributors.

Bono was unhappy with the line Tonight thank God it's them instead of you.. Later, he admitted that it is a painful truth that, while we can feel sympathy and guilt about the plight of others, we're still not prepared to take their place.[citation needed]

The lyrics present a simplified and stereotypical description of Africa. Lines such as Where nothing ever grows are naive given that the area in Ethiopia where the famine took place is normally fertile. Furthermore, the lyrics ignore the fact that the vast majority of Ethiopian Christians are Orthodox and use the Julian calendar, meaning that their Christmas falls on January 7, rather than December 25th. The sole purpose of the song was, as Geldof admits, to use the power of celebrity to raise as much money as possible as quickly as possible.

[edit] Public release

The following morning Geldof appeared on Mike Read's Radio 1 Breakfast Show to promote the record and promised that every penny would go to the cause. This led to a stand-off with the British Government which refused to waive the VAT (sales tax) on the sales of the single. Geldof made the headlines by publicly standing up to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and, sensing the strength of public feeling, the government backed down and donated the tax back to the charity.

The single was released on December 15, 1984, and went straight to number 1 in the UK pop charts outselling all the other records in the chart put together. It became the fastest selling single of all time in the UK, selling a million in the first week alone. It stayed at Number 1 for 5 weeks selling over 3 million copies.

In the United States, the music video was played on MTV frequently throughout the holiday season.

The single was released just before Christmas with the aim of raising money for the relief of the famine. Geldof's somewhat cautious hope was for 70,000 pounds. Ultimately, however, the song raised many millions of pounds and became the biggest-selling single in UK chart history. (It has since been passed by Elton John's tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales.)

Band Aid 20 recorded a new version of the song in November 2004 for the twentieth anniversary of the original recording.

Preceded by
"The Power Of Love" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood		 UK number one single(Band Aid version)
December 9, 1984		 Succeeded by
"I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner
Preceded by
"Let's Party" by Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers		 UK number one single(Band Aid II version)
December 17, 1989		 Succeeded by
"Hangin' Tough" by New Kids on the Block
Preceded by
"I'll Stand By You" by Girls Aloud		 UK number one single (Band Aid 20 version)
December 20, 2004		 Succeeded by
"Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" by Steve Brookstein
Preceded by
"Just Lose It" by Eminem		 RIANZ (New Zealand) number one single (Band Aid 20 version)
December 20, 2004 - December 27 2004		 Succeeded by
"Drop It Like It's Hot" by Snoop Dogg

[edit] Other versions and parodies

In 2005, a spoof of this song was released: Do They Know It's Hallowe'en? a tongue-in-cheek spoof of "Do They Know It's Christmas," with a wide variety of indie stars.

Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered this into a Lounge style song on their 2006 album, "Silent Nightclub".

Canadian band Barenaked Ladies recorded a version of the song, which they had played live for several years, for their 2004 release Barenaked for the Holidays. The release of the album happened to coincide with the 2004 Band Aid release. All the profits/royalties the band receive for their release are donated to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. BNL's cover slightly modifies the lyrics of the song, changing the line, "The greatest gift they'll ever get is dying" to "The greatest gift they'll ever get is life."

There are also 2 Polish versions of that song, both called "Daj im znak", which means "give them a sign". One of them recorded by Cugowski brothers, Maciej Silski, and Grzegorz Markowski (Perfect), and the other one by Magda Rzemek, Cugowski brothers (Bracia), and Artur Gadowski (IRA).

v • d • e
UK Christmas number-one singles in the 2000s

2000 - Bob the Builder - "Can We Fix It?" • 2001 - Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman - "Somethin' Stupid" • 2002 - Girls Aloud - "Sound of the Underground" • 2003 - Michael Andrews featuring Gary Jules - "Mad World" • 2004 - Band Aid 20 - "Do They Know It's Christmas?" • 2005 - Shayne Ward - "That's My Goal" • 2006 - Leona Lewis - "A Moment like This"

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