Do They Know It's Christmas?
Christmas song written and composed by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, originally recorded by Band Aid and released in 1984
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup consisting of popular British and Irish musicians, in a single day at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, in November 1984.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was released in the UK on 7 December 1984. It entered the UK singles chart at number one, where it remained for five weeks, becoming Christmas number one. It sold a million copies in the first week, making it the fastest-selling single in UK chart history until Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997". UK sales passed three million by 1985. The song also reached number one in 13 other countries. In the US, it fell short of the top ten in the Billboard Hot 100, but sold an estimated 2.5 million copies by 1985. It had sold 11.7 million copies worldwide by 1989 and 3.8 million in the UK by 2017.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" raised £8 million for Ethiopia within a year, far exceeding Geldof's hopes.
The public source identifies “Do They Know It's Christmas?” as christmas song written and composed by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, originally recorded by Band Aid and released in 1984. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around They, Know and It's.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Do They Know It's Christmas?”, the useful work is to connect “christmas song written and composed by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, originally recorded by Band Aid and released in 1984” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1188494. The first chronological checks are 1984, 1983, 1985 and 1997.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Do They Know It's Christmas?”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Do They Know It's Christmas? primary sources, Do They Know It's Christmas? archive and They research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Do They Know It's Christmas?”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Do They Know It's Christmas?” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.