Did you know there are 4 different 'Do They Know It's Christmases'? Throw your arms around them all!
Bob Geldof may have disavowed his 1984 new wave carol, but the lesser-heard all-star remakes from 1989, 2004 and 2014 have their time-capsuled charms.
In 1984, new wave’s elite came together as the supergroup Band Aid to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” a benefit single organized by Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof in response to a BBC report about a famine in Ethiopia. The instant seasonal classic, which featured Sting, George Michael, Bono, Boy George, Duran Duran, Bananarama, Spandau Ballet and others, came out to great fanfare in Britain on Nov. 29 and in America on Dec. 3.
Released just four days after it was recorded in an all-night session at Trevor Horn’s SARM Studios in London, the track shot straight to No. 1 in the U.K. and stayed there for five weeks, becoming the biggest hit in British chart history at that time. (It still holds the honor of being the second-biggest U.K. single ever, after Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997.”) The tune also inspired several other high-profile ’80s charity efforts, including the American all-star equivalent “We Are the World” and 1985’s international Live Aid concerts ... and a brilliant parody by Pulp.
Over the years, the well-intentioned carol has attracted criticism for a range of sins: its white savior vibe; its Eurocentric or colonialist perspective; its perpetuation of African stereotypes; its oversimplification of a complex global crisis (i.e., blaming the famine on a drought rather than government corruption); and even the bungled distribution of Band Aid and Live Aid’s funds (which, according to a 1986 Spin magazine exposé, were siphoned off to purchase arms from the Soviet Union, rather than going to actual Ethiopians in need). And of course there was that cringey lyric —“Tonight, thank God, it’s them instead of you” — which was meant to be sardonic but got lost in translation when belted out by the ever-earnest Bono.
“It is schizophrenic, at once catchy and uplifting, while at the same time tackling a tragic subject with all the breeziness of an office party, and, far more seriously, in a stereotypically racial manner. The two are not easily reconciled,” Ali Khaled wrote in a 2018 GQ piece titled “Why Band Aid Gave Us the Greatest Ever — and Worst — Christmas Song.”
Geldof has distanced himself from “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in recent years, declaring it one of the two worst songs ever recorded (the other being “We Are the World,” of course). And Ultravox’s Midge Ure, who co-wrote the tune with Geldof in the space of a few days, co-produced the track, and played most of the instruments on the final recording, told Yahoo Entertainment in 2019 that he thinks “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is a “meh” song with “no real pop sensibilities or structure” that “would have been a dreadful flop” if not for its superstar cast. “I think there’s a power in naiveté, and there was an awful lot of naiveté in putting Band Aid together,” Ure admitted. “I think like most things, there was no real plan.”
For all that, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” remains a mostly beloved if misunderstood holiday staple, and executive producers Geldof and Ure actually revisited it for no less than three other versions — in 1989, 2004 and 2014 — benefiting various worthy causes and recruiting British music luminaries of each era. And each lesser-known version, while still admittedly problematic, does have its curious, time-capsuled charms.
Ure confirmed to Yahoo Entertainment that there will never be another be another remake, out of respect for two of the original Band Aid participants, Wham!’s George Michael and Status Quo’s Rick Parfitt, who died in 2016 (on Christmas Day, poignantly) and 2017 respectively. But here’s a look at the other versions of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” that you may not know about.
Band Aid II (1989)
The unstoppable Europop production trio of Stock, Aitken and Waterman ruled over the late-’80s U.K. scene with a Midas-touched fist, their bubblegum factory’s assembly line churning out Hi-NRG hits for Kylie Minogue, Bananarama, Rick Astley, Samantha Fox, Dead or Alive and even the drag queen Divine, famous. Not all of those SAW artists showed up to record the second “Do They Know It’s Christmas?,” which also benefited Ethiopia in a presumed attempt to right previous wrongs. But it was nice that superstar Minogue stepped into the Paul Young role to kick off the sing-along, and that Bananarama’s Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward (the only holdovers from the 1984 version) participated. And many other British pop stars accepted the all-powerful Pete Waterman’s invitation, including former Bronski Beat singer Jimmy Somerville, Technotronic, Lisa Stansfield, Bros, Cathy Dennis, Wet Wet Wet, Jason Donovan and even Cliff Richard.
Ure admitted to Yahoo in 2019 that it was strange that the ’84 original didn’t have a typical verse/chorus/verse arrangement, with the tacked-on “Feed the World” hook only playing at the very end — and the commercially savvy SAW apparently agreed, restructuring the 1989 version with more traditional format. The result was still as treacly as Christmas pudding, of course, but Band Aid II made history by charting the last No. 1 U.K. single of the ’80s.
Band Aid 20 (2004)
This post-Britpop recording, marking the 20th anniversary of the song and this time benefiting the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, was a true Anglophile’s dream. Initially suggested by Coldplay’s Chris Martin and produced by longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich, it featured members of Radiohead, Coldplay, Supergrass, Snow Patrol, Keane, Morcheeba, the Thrills, Turin Brakes, Travis, Ash, Feeder, the Divine Comedy and Blur (whose Damon Albarn was credited as the session’s “tea boy”), alongside solo stars like Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Joss Stone, Dido, Estelle, Will Young, Ms. Dynamite and both Bedingfields (Daniel and Natasha). Even Bono took part, surprisingly reprising his controversial line from 1984. One version of the music video featured a solemn, spoken introduction in a clipped British accent by Madonna, then married to Guy Ritchie and considering herself an honorary Englishwoman.
Grime king Dizzee Rascal’s rap, a new addition to the arrangement, should seemed out of place, but juxtaposed with the choirboy falsetto of Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins, it somehow worked and modernized the track. “Dizzee Rascal and the Darkness have been firm friends for years. I love that guy. And he was the best thing on that. He was the best thing on that Band Aid by some distance. I think everybody just contributed what they would be expected to contribute, and then Dizzee did something that was above and beyond,” Hawkins marveled to Yahoo Entertainment in 2020. This version became the biggest U.K. single of 2004, as well as that year’s all-important Christmas No. 1, a much-hyped chart coup across the pond.
Band Aid 30 (2014)
The final Band Aid lineup, formed to raise money towards the Ebola crisis in Western Africa, boasted quite a wild-ranging mix of British celebs — representing indie and alt-rock (members of Coldplay, Bastille, Elbow, Mumford & Sons) and electronic music (Seal, Underworld, Clean Bandit, Disclosure), alongside pop idols of the day like Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Olly Murs, Rita Ora, Paloma Faith, Jessie Ware and the One Direction kids. Bono even showed up again, alongside fellow Irish royalty Sinéad O'Connor and classic rockers Roger Taylor (of Queen) and Robert Plant. The randomness made it seem like Geldof just sent out a last-minute Evite in the hopes that some people would turn up. Whatever he did, it worked, although this effort too came under fire for only featuring one artist of African descent, Emeli Sandé, and for maintaining the original Band Aid’s condescending tone (which had prompted rapper Fuse ODG to drop out). Band Aid 30’s version certainly didn’t go down in the Christmas Hall of Fame, but it did spend one week at No. 1 on the U.K. chart.
Bonus clip: Top of the Pops (1984)
On a special Christmas Day episode of Britain’s long-running countdown program, many Band Aid stars mimed and arrhythmically clapped along to the track — so badly, they really must’ve been hitting up the egg nog in the BBC green room. Some singers that weren’t on the “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” single, like the Thompson Twins, Bronski Beat and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, also joined in on the fun. The most endearingly awkwardly moments were Sting stepping all over Simon Le Bon’s line and Paul Weller lip-synching the absent Bono’s problematic lyric with unexpected, seemingly un-ironic gusto. This silly video really is the holiday gift that keeps on giving.
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