On The Dial: A Contemporary Classic Holiday Song For Our Time

Are you sick of Mariah Carey’s rendition of “All I Want From Christmas?”

I’m sure a number of you are. We could throw so much shade on this track. We could also throw in her former husband Nick Cannon under the bus with this track. After all, his career on television and music could be worth a lot of shade here.

If you are sick of Mariah and that Holiday track, what should replace that on your playlist?

First and foremost, I was a bit irked when I started walking into stores and hearing Holiday music earlier than one’s emotional health would tolerate. I know that getting into the “Holiday spirit” is good for business. I’m sure my attempts at trying to navigate the stores prior to Thanksgiving with aimless crowds have been futile enough to summarize how much this season of “giving” has gotten challenging in recent years.

So, yeah, “Bah Humburg!”

Not so fast, Scrooge! There is a track that is still worth listening to after Thanksgiving.

It is called “Do They Know it’s Christmas?”. The original recording from 1984. And, the extended version. 

Why?

It’s about the story.

The lead singer of The Boomtown Rats, Bob Geldof, was watching a tragedy unfold in the Horn of Africa on his television set. The Irish singer saw reports of starvation and famine in Ethiopia from a news report that were completely catastrophic. The BBC story featured a nurse on the ground in Ethiopia who made tough decisions daily on which child would survive or not. That moved both Geldof and his partner, television host and singer Paula Yates, to figure out what they can do to prevent such decisions to be made. To enable all children to live in the face of famine.

In early November of 1984, The Tube on Channel 4 (A British commercial television Channel), Yates hosted a set by Ultravox, led by Scottish lead singer Midge Ure. On a chance encounter, Geldof called Yates while Ure was in her dressing room after the set. Yates handed the phone to Ure, and Geldof asked him whether he was interested in a project to irradicate the famine in Ethiopia. A few days after the television spot, Geldof and Ure met over lunch. The outcome was to do a song that would help the children of Ethiopia to live by a charity record.

They knew they could not do it alone. Geldof started recruiting fellow musicians across the UK to help record this song. In 1984, he had a ready roster of artists worth reaching out to. Practically every phone call and chance meeting became a “yes” towards participating in recording a song that Geldof and Ure were composing towards saving the children of a famine-stricken African country.

Everything was done without paying anyone. Also, Geldof and Ure brought in Trevor Horn to produce the single. Music magazines in the UK would allow advertisements to promote the single as donations to the cause. Phonogram Records also agreed to release the single in the UK, with international releasing through its parent company PolyGram Records. 

On November 25, 1984, Horn welcomed the entire Band Aid team and all of the artists to record the song at Sarm West Studios in London’s Notting Hill. The session would run for 24 hours without paying for the studio time. That day, everyone showed up…

Not everyone, but those who did enter into Sarm West Studios that day became a collective of voices and musicians to record a charity record that would set the standard for the genre – and for modern holiday music.

Who participated in this recording? There was Culture Club, which Boy George flew from New York on the last Concorde flight of the day to make the recording session. He was one of several solos on the record – and the last one to be recorded. Phil Collins brought in his drum kit to the recording for additional tracking. 

Duran Duran was there, with Simon LeBon doing one of the solos. So was Ultravox, Paul Young, Spandau Ballet, Sting, U2, The Boomtown Rats, George Michael, Heaven 17, Status Quo, Bananarama, Paul Weller…even Jody Watley and Kool and The Gang were there. 

Some artists that did not show up recorded messages on their own to contribute to the extended version – rather, the B-side – of the song. Paul McCartney had a bit of fun on his absentee recording, while David Bowie made the pitch for anyone listening to help this cause. Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Big Country added their pre-recorded messages to the B-Side, as well. 

The day after the recording, Geldof promoted the song on BBC Radio 1. Once available for airplay, it was played hourly. In turn, it became a massive hit in the UK putting it on the top of the sales charts in that country quite quickly. Within two weeks of the record hitting the stores, it sold over a million copies – the fastest single to do so in the UK.

In the USA, it was released on Columbia Records. This is an interesting turn, since it was not released on any of the stateside PolyGram labels such as Mercury Records. Yet, Columbia was the primary label for CBS. The broadcasting and recording giant had more industry clout in the USA than PolyGram. 

Once the song was released in America, it also sparked a lot of sales. Within eleven days of its release in December of 1984, the single sold 1.9 million units. However, it did not get the level of radio airplay it did in the UK. That prevented the single to hit number one on the Billboard charts. 

That is where the music video came into play. It was shown on MTV, as well as a weekly video show on NBC. Consumers were able to buy a 30-minute documentary videotape, where proceeds would go to the Band Aid trust. 

The proceeds from the single did translate towards getting food into Ethiopia. It had its challenges with active rebel groups blocking and stealing the aid, but it did make an impact on a tragedy that could’ve wiped out millions of people in the Horn of Africa. 

Forty years after the original recording and release of the song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” became the launching pad for other charity singles. Quincy Jones, Lionel Ritchie, and Michael Jackson got together after the new year in 1985 to record “We Are The World” under the banner USA for Africa. Another group of Canadian artists did the same thing for “Tears are Not Enough.” The list goes on from there. 

If you know your musical history, Band Aid became Live Aid. Live Aid brought in more money to the cause through two massive concerts in London and Philadelphia in a single day. There had been anniversary editions with new artists re-recoding this modern Christmas classic over time, including a re-mixed compilation of all three recordings to mark the 40th year since the original recording. 

Should I mention all of the controversies and criticisms Geldof, Ure, the song, and the relief efforts received over the past 40 years?

I cannot think of any Holiday season song that had the impact and legacy of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Or, a driving force behind it such as Bob Geldof. Along with a cast of collaborators that created Band Aid and Live Aid. 

As for Mariah Carey and her rendition of that song that is supposed to be the contemporary classic for the Holidays…well, that’s your choice. 

Cover photo by Randy Stern