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| Label = | Writer = | Producer = }} "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in reaction to television reports of the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded in a single day on 25 November 1984 by Band Aid, a supergroup put together by Geldof and Ure and consisting mainly of the biggest British and Irish musical acts at the time. The single was released in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1984 and aided by considerable publicity it entered the UK Singles Chart at number one and stayed there for five weeks, becoming the Christmas number one of 1984. The record became the fastest selling single in UK chart history, selling a million copies in the first week alone and passing 3 million on the last day of 1984, on the way to becoming the biggest selling single of all time in the UK. It held this title until 1997 when it was overtaken by Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997", released in tribute to Princess Diana following her death. The original version of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" has sold 3.78 million copies in the UK to date. The song was also a major success around the world, reaching number one in thirteen other countries outside the UK. In the US, the single fell short of the top ten in the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 due to a lack of airplay, but it had sold an estimated 2.5 million copies in the US by January 1985. Worldwide the single had sold 11.7 million copies by 1989. Geldof's cautious hope was that the single would raise £70,000 for Ethiopia, but in the event "Do They Know It's Christmas?" raised £8 million within twelve months of release. The single's worldwide success in raising awareness and financial relief for the victims of the Ethiopian famine led the recording of several other charity singles in the UK and in other countries, such as "We Are the World" by USA for Africa. The song also led to various spin-off charity events, such as Comic Relief, and the Live Aid concert which would take place seven months later in July 1985. "Do They Know It's Christmas?" was re-recorded three times in 1989, 2004, and 2014. All the re-recordings were also charity records; the 1989 and 2004 versions also provide money for famine relief, while the 2014 version was used to raise funds for the ongoing Ebola crisis in West Africa. All three of these versions also reached number one in the UK, and the 2004 version of the song was also a UK million seller, with 1.17 million copies sold.〔 ==Background== The song was inspired by a series of reports that Michael Buerk made for BBC television news programmes, which highlighted the famine in Ethiopia that was taking place at the time. The Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof and his wife, television presenter Paula Yates, watched the report broadcast on 23 October 1984 and were deeply affected by it. On 2 November Yates travelled from the couple's home in London to the Tyne Tees studio in Newcastle upon Tyne where she was presenting the weekly live music show ''The Tube''. Among the acts performing on that week's programme were Ultravox, promoting their greatest hits album ''The Collection''. Ultravox's front man Midge Ure happened to be chatting to Yates in the dressing room after the show when Geldof called her. On discovering that she was with Ure, an old friend of Geldof's, he asked to speak to Ure and told him that he wanted to do something to alleviate the suffering in Ethiopia. Ure immediately agreed to help and the pair arranged to meet and discuss ideas over lunch the following Monday, 5 November, quickly coming to the conclusion that the best option would be to make a charity record. Following their meeting, Geldof immediately set about recruiting other well known musicians to participate on the record. Geldof said, "I then rang Sting and he said, yeah, count me in, and then () Le Bon, he just immediately said tell me the date and we'll clear the diary. The same day I was passing by this antique shop and who is standing in there but Gary Kemp, just about to go off on tour to Japan. He said he was mad for it as well and to wait 10 days till they 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Do They Know It's Christmas?」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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