It is the 40th anniversary of the legendary charity pop song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid. This year there is new mix of the song under the name Band Aid 40.
Before we get to that, let's have a look back at the versions that have happened along the way. There was Band Aid II, Band Aid 20, and Band Aid 30.
In 1984, there was a drought in Ethiopia, which caused a famine. People there were dying of hunger. Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats and Midge Ure of Ultravox got together and wrote the song to raise money for the country. They asked many of their pop star friends to be a part of the record. Artists included Duran Duran, U2, Bananarama, Culture Club, George Michael, Jody Watley, Spandau Ballet, Kool and The Gang, Phil Collins, Paul Young, and many more.
In 1989, a new group of artists got together under the name Band Aid II and recorded a more upbeat version with producers Stock Aitken Waterman. The only returning artists from the original version were Bananarama, although with a new lineup. The other artists were Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Cathy Dennis, Bros, Jimmy Sommerville, Big Fun, Lisa Stansfield, Cliff Richard, and many more.
On the 20th anniversary, another new group of artists recorded a new version under the name Band Aid 20. Despite having the Sugababes, this is largely considered to be the worst version as it includes a jarring guitar solo, an awkward rap, and chorus doesn't blend all that well. The artists were Bono from U2, Chris Martin of Cold Play, Sugababes, Daniel and Natasha Bedingfield, Dido, Robbie Williams, and many others.
Before Band Aid 20 came out, there was a campaign to get Bananarama involved as they had been on the previous 2 records. We think it worked out that they weren't there, because we find this version hard to listen to.
On the 30th anniversary, Band Aid 30 was created and this time to sing about the Ebola crisis in Africa, which felt a little disjointed as the chorus "Feed The World" remains. Bono returned again for this one, too. They finally changed the cringeworthy lyrics "Tonight, thank God it's them instead of you." The other artists were One Direction, Ellie Goudling, Rita Ora, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Jessie Ware, Seal, Sinéad O'Connor, and many others.
And now we have Band Aid 40 ... kind of. There isn't a new super group. It is just new mix of the song features vocals from the original, Band Aid 20, and Band Aid 30. It does seem like Band Aid II was left out, but sadly, the master recordings could not be found in a timely manner, which really is too bad because it would have been nice to include them.
The new mix is a bit strange, and we aren't quite sure we like it very much. Instead of blending the singers together, there is a lot of repeating the lines. Sadly, Bono's cringeworthy line is back and repeated a couple of times. The good news is the video is better than the song.
We think that none of the remakes have been better than the original. So that is our go-to version. We do have a soft spot for Band Aid II, as it is the best of the cover versions.
Because we love the first 2 versions of the song, both Band Aid I and Band Aid II have been added to our Spotify playlist called A Very Poptastic Christmas playlist on Spotify.
Feed the world,
—The Poptastic Confessions Collective
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See our Top Songs of past years here ...
