Posted on 12/20/2004 3:51:46 AM PST by crushelits
LONDON (Reuters) - The reworked Band Aid charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" has clinched the coveted Christmas number one spot on the UK pop charts, the Official UK Charts Company said Sunday.
As expected, Band Aid 20, a nod to the two decades that have passed since Bob Geldof (news) assembled the leading pop stars for the 1984 smash hit record, clung on to the top spot beating off competition from Ronan Keating (news) and pop queen Kylie Minogue (news).
Proceeds from the new Band Aid recording -- featuring vocals from stars such as Jamelia and Coldplay's Chris Martin (news) and rap from Dizzee Rascal -- will go toward relief efforts in Ethiopia and Sudan.
Geldof welcomed the number one spot. "It's an excuse to think about someone else this Christmas," he told BBC radio. "Thank you very much everybody. What you have done is remarkable and important."
Bookmakers William Hill stopped taking bets on Band Aid taking the top Christmas spot two months ago and instead focused on the festive number two. The charity single has outsold Keating and Minogue by five to one, William Hill said.
Despite missing the number one spot, Christmas came early for Irish heartthrob Keating. His duet "Father and Son" with Yusuf Islam, who first recorded the song when he was known as Cat Stevens (news), went straight in at number two.
The melancholic remake pushed Minogue's typically upbeat "I Believe In You" down a spot to third.
Rapper Ice Cube's "You Can Do It," featuring Mack 10 and MS Toi, also moved down a spot to fourth place.
Bo Selecta's double comedy charity single "Soda Pop/I've Got You Babe," featuring Patsy Kensit and Davina McCall, was one of three new entries in the top 10, going straight to number five.
Music veteran Morrissey's "I Have Forgiven Jesus" was also new at number ten.
But the man who has become a perennial feature on the festive charts, Cliff Richard (news), stayed outside the top 10. His ballad "I Cannot Give You My Love," entered at number 13.
The top spot on the Christmas album chart went to British crooner Robbie Williams (news) whose "Greatest Hits" was followed by opera quartet Il Divo. Irish rockers U2 were third with their "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" album.
It was bad enough the first time around.
I just got a really really bad mental picture from this paragraph. I knew the music business was tough and cutthroat, but really ...
I respect Geldof for DOING something, but just like last time, I have to wonder who this is going to benefit. I think these efforts would have been better spent on telling the UN to DO ITS JOB. Geldof's first go-round led to food rotting on docks and supplying all the wrong people. The road to Hell,,,
This season's lame attempt at controversy, courtesy of a fading minor star.
Keep in mind, they're to trying to raise money to support research that will-presumably-be put towards AIDS research.
You figure that they could have at least thought of some new lines that are content-specific.
Another problem I have with these "LIVE AID" concerts is that they don't accomplish much of anything, other than boosting the reputations of a bunch of dilettantish, vapid pop stars, who have no real insight into this issue.
Furthermore, Harry Chapin was doing this type of thing years before Bob Geldof, Bono or any of the other-much less talented-rock musicians took up arms against poverty, famine, pestilence, insert burning social/economic issue of the day.
His family will probably still be doing the same years after these people have vanished from the scene.
Given that Geldof has been around for 28 years and Bono for 24, I dont think either of them can be classed as transitory
I've only ever heard Americans express that view. I think its a nuance between UK and American English
The line is not celebratory as in "be happy its not us". Its more of an "Understand how lucky you are and act accordingly" - - i.e. give
To answer the musical question: No. The original song was about Ethiopia, a country that has a plurality of Muslims and suffered a Marxist revolution in the late '70s. So, no. They most likely didn't know it was Christmas. The few that even acknowledged it were oppressed first by the Muslims and later by the Marxists.
Did they at least know it was Kwanzaa?
I dont think the writers of the song were thinking politics or religion. It may (just possibly) have been no more than an altruistic attempt to help starving people.
I doubt Kwanzaa is not celebrated in Africa. It was started by an American to help blacks rediscover their heritage.
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/kwanzaa/hist.html
I doubt=I doubt it
What a nauseating song that was!
Ah, Kwanzaa.
FReepers need to make up our own holiday to coincide with MLK day. THAT would eliminate the Kwanzaa nonsense.
Politics had everything to do with the African famine in the early 80s. Communism, to be precise.
I guess Festivus is out of the question...
That has got to be THE most cotton-candy history of Kwanzaa I have ever seen.
Where are the mentions of the murders and torture commited by it's founder?
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