Do They Know It's Simplistic?

DAVE HOGAN/BAND AID TRUST

SECOND VERSE: British singers Will Young and Jamelia record the charity remake

Has one song ever had so much impact? Do They Know It's Christmas?, the sing-along single recorded by U.K. supergroup Band Aid in 1984 to raise money for starving Ethiopians, was the beginning of a fundraising phenomenon. The song, which brought together everyone from U2 to Wham! (an achievement in itself), went straight to No. 1 in Britain and raised some $18 million. We Are the World, an even schmaltzier American effort, and the accompanying Live Aid rock concert, screened to 1.5 billion people around the globe, raised millions more. Band Aid, the brainchild of scruffy Boomtown...

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