Burning The Ground Exclusive 1989
“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 assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of popular British and Irish musical acts.
A second version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” was recorded under the name of Band Aid II in 1989, overseen by the most successful British production team of the late 1980s, Stock Aitken Waterman. Geldof had telephoned Pete Waterman to ask him to produce a new version of the song to aid the ongoing situation in Ethiopia, and within 24 hours the recording session had been arranged at Stock Aitken Waterman’s studios on London’s South Bank. The recording took place over the weekend of 2 and 3 December, and featured several artists who had already been produced by SAW, including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Bananarama, Sonia, and Cliff Richard, as well as other artists who had big hits in 1989, such as Lisa Stansfield, Jimmy Somerville, Wet Wet Wet and Bros. Bananarama’s Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward became the only artists to appear on both the 1984 and 1989 versions of the record. Siobhan Fahey, who had been part of Bananarama’s line-up at the time the first recording of the song was released, had left the group in 1988.
The lyrics were rearranged for a more traditional ‘verse and chorus’ structure, with the opening verse being split in two with a short repeat of the ending chorus being played at the end of both, followed by the “here’s to you” section and a final lengthened version of the closing chorus (with commentary by Michael Buerk played over the outro in the music video).
Released on 11 December 1989, the Band Aid II version spent three weeks at number one in the UK, becoming the Christmas number one single and the last number one single of the 1980s, and ended the year as the ninth biggest selling single of 1989.
SIDE A:
Do They Know It’s Christmas? 4:26
SIDE B:
Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Instrumental) 4:26
CASSETTE GRADE:
Cassette: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: PolyGram – 873 646-4
Format: Cassette, Single
Country: Canada
Released: 1989
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop
CREDITS:
- Mixed By – Mixmaster Phil Harding*
- Producer – Stock Aitken Waterman*
- Written-By [uncredited] – Geldof*, Ure*
NOTES:
Cassette plays identical tracklisting on both sides.
DOLBY NR Enabled
Personnel:
(adapted from credits on the back cover of the single sleeve)
Bananarama
Big Fun
Bros
Cathy Dennis
D Mob
Jason Donovan
Kevin Godley
Glen Goldsmith
Kylie Minogue
The Pasadenas
Chris Rea
Cliff Richard
Jimmy Somerville
Sonia
Lisa Stansfield
Technotronic (incorrectly listed as “Technotronics” on the sleeve)
Wet Wet Wet
Musicians:
Matt Aitken – keyboards, guitar
Luke Goss – drums
Chris Rea – guitar
Mike Stock – keyboards
The sleeve also credits “A Linn” with playing drums on the record, a joking reference to the programmed Linn drum machine.
Buy the Cassette at DISCOGS
CASSETTE TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net
THE GEAR:
Cassette Deck: Nakamichi BX-300 Discrete 3-Head Cassette Deck
DAC/Phono Pre-amp Line In Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner
SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
Cassette transfer was recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at
**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!
Password: burningtheground
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