Today is the fourth day of 12 days of classic Christmas songs and our classic Christmas song of the day is “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” a charity single released by a collection of British and Irish musicians collectively known as Band-Aid. This is the rare example of a Christmas song written and performed not just for the holidays but for a good cause.
Back in 1983 and 1984 the African country of Ethiopia was ravaged by famine. British musician Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats (“I Don’t Like Mondays“) saw a BBC news report on the crisis and was inspired to do something about it. He partnered with his friend Midge Ure, of the group Ultravox, and decided to get together the hot UK musicians of the day to record a single and donate the proceeds to charity. They hoped to raise 70,000 pounds; instead, they raised more than 8 million pounds within the single’s first year of release.
Geldof and Ure started organizing things on November 5, 1984. They wrote the song together and started recruiting their friends and colleagues for the recording. The recording session took place on November 25 at Sarm West Studios in London and lasted until just after dinnertime that evening. (Boy George was the last artist to record his part, having jetted over from a gig in New York City on the Concorde that day.) They mixed and mastered it overnight and released the single to radio the very next day. The single was released to retailers on December 3 and immediately shot to number one on the charts, selling 200,000 copies in its first two days of release in the UK.
There are many good and a few questionable things to say about “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The very good things are:
- It raised more than 8 million pounds (about $9.3 million in 1984 dollars) for Ethiopian famine relief
- It brought together the cream of British and UK rock/pop musicians at the time
- They did it fast—just three weeks from conception to recording, with the single released less than a week after the recording session
- It inspired several other charity singles around the world that brought in even more money for famine relief efforts
There were also a few not-so-great aspects of the effort:
- It was all the new wave of artists, nobody from old school rock royalty—no Stones or Beatles or Kinks or Whos (although Paul McCartney and David Bowie were both asked to participate, their schedules precluded it; instead, they both made spoken-word contributions that appeared on the B-side of the single)
- The lyrics were just a trifle condescending and colonial—I mean, “Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” induces the cringes even today
- It was a real sausage-fest with zero ladies singing any of the lead parts; the only women participating were the three Bananarama chicks and Jodie Watley, then singing with Shalamar, who sang in the choir (would it have been too much for them to have asked a Chrissie Hynde or an Annie Lennox to join in?)
- It led to the insipid and ego-filled American charity single, “We Are the World”
A few words about “We Are the World.” While “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” appeared to be genuinely inspired by musicians trying to make a difference, “We Are the World” seemed to me like a gratuitous follow-on created solely for rich big-name American musicians to show the world just how much they appeared to care about such things. Everything about the American effort grated: the lyrics were insipid and borderline insulting; the music was equally insipid and instantly forgettable; the backing track sounded like something left over at the end of a Muzak recording session; the “stars” of the piece went out of their way to appear star-like with over-the-top vocal histrionics; and it took them over a month to pull it all together and another month to mix it and master it and get it released. It seemed to me that the only reason this example of American excess got produced at all was because the Americans felt guilted into it (or just didn’t want the Brits to seem more caring than the Yanks) and because once Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson got involved everybody else was clamoring for an invitation to the party. The only good thing about the whole thing—and this is a very good thing—is that it raised $63 million for humanitarian aid. It also directly led to the Live Aid charity concerts, which was not a bad thing.
Back to “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” It truly was a star studded event, at least for a certain kind of music in a certain kind of place at a certain time. The singers included:
- Robert “Kool” Bell (Kool & the Gang)
- Bono (U2)
- Pete Briquette (The Boomtown Rats)
- Adam Clayton (U2)
- Phil Collins (Genesis and solo artist)
- Chris Cross (Ultravox)
- Simon Crowe (The Boomtown Rats)
- Sara Dallin (Bananarama)
- Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama)
- Johnny Fingers (The Boomtown Rats)
- Bob Geldof (The Boomtown Rats)
- Boy George (Culture Club)
- Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17)
- Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet)
- John Keeble (Spandau Ballet)
- Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet)
- Martin Kemp (Spandau Ballet)
- Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran)
- Marilyn
- George Michael (Wham!)
- Jon Moss (Culture Club)
- Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet)
- Rick Parfitt (Status Quo)
- Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran)
- Francis Rossi (Status Quo)
- Sting (The Police)
- Andy Taylor (Duran Duran)
- James “J.T.” Taylor (Kool & the Gang)
- John Taylor (Duran Duran)
- Roger Taylor (Duran Duran)
- Dennis Thomas (Kool & the Gang)
- Midge Ure (Ultravox)
- Martyn Ware (Heaven 17)
- Jody Watley
- Paul Weller (The Style Council)
- Keren Woodward (Bananarama)
- Paul Young
And finally, we have Phil Collins who, in addition to singing in the chorus, provided powerhouse drumming throughout. He apparently nailed it on the first take but insisted on a second take just to make it a little better. It’s really some of his finest drumming on record.
