"
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.