Do They Know It's Christmas?

Do They Know It's Christmas? is the title of a song recorded and released by supergroup Band Aid. Written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, The song was released in December 1984 as a fund-raising single for famine relief in Africa.

Tracklisting

 * 7" FEED 1

A. Do They Know It's Christmas?

B. Feed The World


 * 12" FEED 112

A. Do They Know It's Christmas ? (12" Mix) - remixed by Trevor Horn

B1 Do They Know It's Christmas ? (Standard Mix)

B2 Feed The World

Timeline

 * 25 November 1984: Do They Know It's Christmas? is recorded in one day at SARM Studios, Notting Hill, London between 11 am and 7 pm.
 * 26 November 1984: Bob Geldof appears on the Mike Read Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 1 in order to promote the single.
 * 03 December 1984: the record is released.
 * 11 December 1984: the single has entered the charts at no.1 (the second single of the year to do so after Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes). Do They Know It's Christmas? replaced FGTH's The Power of Love (with its Nativity-themed video) which had taken just two weeks to reach the top. It dropped down to N3 with Wham!'s Last Christmas entering the charts at N2.
 * 13 December 1984: promo-clip of the recording/performance of the single is shown on Top of the Pops. The clip will be shown for each week of the single's five-week stint at no.1.
 * 25 December 1984: Band Aid appear in the studio for the Top of the Pops Christmas Day Special. The formation is slightly different since some artists could not make it to the BBC Studios. George Michael, for example, is absent and Sting is shown as partially miming over his vocal part, while Paul Weller famously mimes to Bono Vox's part. Billy Currie of Ultravox is shown miming a keyboard part with a toy piano. Other notable new additions 8who did not partecipate in the original recording) include members of Slade, Bronski Beat, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Nik Kershaw.Band Aid - Do they know it's Christmas (Top of The Pops, 1984 - widescreen)

Re-recorded versions
Several new versions of the original song have been recorded and released since the original.

Band Aid II

 * released 11 December 1989: three weeks at number one in the UK, Christmas number one single, the last number one single of the 1980s, and the ninth biggest selling single of 1989.

Band Aid 20

 * released 29 November 2004: four weeks at number one

Glee Cast

 * released 15 November 2011, album Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Volume 2.

Band Aid 30

 * released 17 November 2014 (rec. Saturday 15 Nov.): straight to no.1 but remained for one week only.

Band Aid Liverpool

 * released 10 December 2020

LadBaby

 * Retitled "Food Aid", rel. 16 December 2022, Ladbaby's fifth consecutive Christmas number one (surpassing The Beatles' record of four non consec. Christmas no.1s)