Thirty-four years ago, on Nov. 25, 1984, new wave’s elite came together to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” a now-legendary holiday benefit single for Ethiopian famine relief.
Most people remember that the Boomtown Rats’ Bob Geldof, who was inspired to do the project after watching an October 1984 BBC report about the crisis in Ethiopia, was at the helm, and that the famous song was belted by superstars like Simon Le Bon, Boy George, Sting and Bono.
But not everyone realizes that Band Aid would not have existed without Midge Ure of Ultravox, who co-wrote and produced the track and even played almost all of the instruments on the final recording.
It went on to sell 3.8. million copies in the United Kingdom alone, and 12 million worldwide.
Yahoo, reports that the song has since been re-recorded by three other “Band Aids,” in 1989, 2004 and 2014— but Ure confirmed last year that there will never be another be another remake, out of respect for two of the original recording’s participants, George Michael and Status Quo’s Rick Parfitt, who recently passed away. However, Ure confesses, “I’m not denying that every time I hear the opening bars of that [1984] song as I’m walking around the supermarket or wherever, that opening clang still sends shivers up my spine. So, as a record, it really did achieve its goals.” The original “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” eventually raised over $24 million, and inspired other well-meaning pop-music charity efforts of the ’80s, like USA for Africa’s “We Are the World” and Geldof’s global Live Aid concerts.
