Band Aid’s single Do They Know It’s Christmas? was concieved on November 2nd 1984 by Bob Geldorf who contacted Midge Ure and together they wrote the song on the following day. The song was recorded at SARM West End studios on Sunday, November 25th by a collection of artists enlisted specially for this recording.

Peter Blake was approached to design the cover and was give one week to come up with the design. A classic Peter Blake collage:

The record was released on 7th December 1984 both on seven-inch and twelve-inch vinyl, and went on to sell millions of copies resulting in GBP 8 million for the charity. I went out and bought several copies to give to friends as Christmas presents.

The record was re-released in November 1985 with a new B-side One Year On (Feed the World), again as a seven-inch and a twelve inch.

Do They Know It’s Christmas? was first released on CD in 1989 together with a cassettee and new seven-inch versions. The cover was a disappointing black or green cover designed by David Howells.

The next release was for the record’s twentieth anniversary in 2004. Released only as CD single, the cover was initially to be designed by Damien Hirst but his design was rejected as being too harrowing and Mat Maitland made the cover image A Disney-ish winter scene with a superimposed image of the back of a starving child.

For the thirtieth anniversary in 2014, Tracy Emin was selected for the cover design and she produced one of her neon signs.

And now it’s 2024–forty years after the original release and Bob Geldorf has once more asked Sir Peter Blake for a new design. It was released on 29th November, this time, only available as a 12″ maxi EP and a CD. Trevor Horn, the producer of the original 1984 version of Do Thy Know It’s Christmas has produced a new remix for this fortieth anniversary release.

Blake has reused his red heart on a yellow background as the main image and selected a range of collagese placed along the top. Front cover design is, however, credited to Mark Cowne with layout and design by Darren Evans. I get a bit muddled by all these designers. All I know is the images on the front cover are by Peter Blake.

This isn’t the first time Blake’s red heart motif has appeared on a record cover. It turned up on the inner spread of Mark Knopfler’s Tracker LP in 2015.

Stay tuned for my report on the fiftieth anniversary version. I hope I’m still around then.