Band Aid – “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (Top of the Pops)
More memorable to UK audiences, the weekly music show Top of the Pops entertained audiences for decades. One of the most unforgotten highlights of the show’s history, and the UK music scene itself, was the 1984 collaboration from a plethora of artists forming Band Aid, raising money for relief of the starvation in Africa. They raised millions with that Christmas release, and the song was the most successful selling single the UK. Musical contributors included founders Bob Geldoff and Midge Ure of course but also Sting, Nick Kershaw, Paul Weller, Boy George, and many, many others. It’s a very fine, poignant song in the end, celebrating the human spirit and quest for a better life for those much less fortunate. The whole phenomena would spawn future chart-topping renditions of the song with newer artists, and the global, massive success that was Live Aid.
