--- title: Band Aid Charity Song Anniversary: Do They Know It's Christmas History description: One Direction and friends have teamed up for another version of the single. Here's what the first one accomplished canonical: https://time.com/3589376/band-aid-do-they-know-its-christmas/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-17T17:00:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:28:52.947Z article:section: History og:title: The Original Impact of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' og:description: One Direction and friends have teamed up for another version of the single. Here's what the first one accomplished og:url: https://time.com/3589376/band-aid-do-they-know-its-christmas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf13e204513e83db/6987690b55a8593c78a8420b/bandaid.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Feed The World og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Original Impact of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' twitter:description: One Direction and friends have teamed up for another version of the single. Here's what the first one accomplished twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf13e204513e83db/6987690b55a8593c78a8420b/bandaid.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Putting a Band Aid on It: The Impact of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 17, 2014 5:00 PM UTC  Bob Geldof and Midge Ure pictured outside SARM Studios in London, during the recording of the Band Aid single 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', on Nov. 25, 1984. Bob Geldof and Midge Ure pictured outside SARM Studios in London, during the recording of the Band Aid single 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', on Nov. 25, 1984.Larry Ellis—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 17, 2014 5:00 PM UTC On Monday, some of the biggest names in music — One Direction, Bono, Sam Smith and others — released a Christmas-themed song to raise money for a good cause. Of course, that story, and even the song in question, should sound familiar: The [new single is the 30th-anniversary edition of Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”](https://time.com/3588938/band-aid-one-direction-bono-do-they-know-its-christmas/) — the song that in 1984 raised millions to fight famine in Ethiopia and, this time around, will raise money to combat the scourge of Ebola. Back when the original version of the song was released, TIME took a look at the original Band Aid project and found that its impact reached far beyond one Christmas song, and even beyond the famine. The song “brought everything to a boil” and led to a trend in activist music that reached from Live Aid to FarmAid and from Artists United Against Apartheid to fashion designers raising money for food. The reasons for the trend, some suggested, ran deep: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story here, in the TIME Vault:_** [Songs from the High Ground](http://time.com/vault/issue/1985-10-07/page/82/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3589376/band-aid-do-they-know-its-christmas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3589376/band-aid-do-they-know-its-christmas/"},"headline":"Putting a Band Aid on It: The Impact of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'","datePublished":"2014-11-17T17:00:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:28:52.947Z","description":"One Direction and friends have teamed up for another version of the single. 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