“Voices That Care” is a 1991 song written by David Foster, Linda Thompson and Peter Cetera and recorded by a supergroup of popular musicians, entertainers and athletes. The group of people involved was also collectively known as Voices That Care and was shown as such on the single release and marketing materials. The single and supporting documentary music video were intended to help boost the morale of U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm, as well as supporting the International Red Cross organization.
The following is the order of appearance in the song: Ralph Tresvant, Randy Travis, Celine Dion, Peter Cetera, Bobby Brown, Brenda Russell, Jani Lane, Luther Vandross, Garth Brooks, Kathy Mattea, Gunnar & Matthew Nelson, Michael Bolton, Pointer Sisters, Little Richard, Will Smith, Mark Knopfler — Guitar solo, Kenny G — Saxophone solo, Warren Wiebe
“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is a song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in reaction to television reports of the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded in a single day on 25 November 1984 by Band Aid, a supergroup put together by Geldof and Ure and consisting mainly of the biggest British and Irish musical acts at the time.
The song was inspired by a series of reports that Michael Buerk made for BBC television news programmes, which highlighted the famine in Ethiopia that was taking place at the time. The Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof and his wife, television presenter Paula Yates, watched the report broadcast on 23 October 1984 and were deeply affected by it. On 2 November Yates traveled from the couple’s home in London to the Tyne Tees studio in Newcastle upon Tyne where she was presenting the weekly live music show The Tube. Among the acts performing on that week’s program were Ultravox, promoting their greatest hits album The Collection. Ultravox’s front man Midge Ure happened to be chatting to Yates in the dressing room after the show when Geldof called her. On discovering that she was with Ure, an old friend of Geldof’s, he asked to speak to Ure and told him that he wanted to do something to alleviate the suffering in Ethiopia. Ure immediately agreed to help and the pair arranged to meet and discuss ideas over lunch the following Monday, 5 November, quickly coming to the conclusion that the best option would be to make a charity record.
Following their meeting, Geldof immediately set about recruiting other well known musicians to participate on the record. Geldof said, “I then rang Sting and he said, yeah, count me in, and then [Simon] Le Bon, he just immediately said tell me the date and we’ll clear the diary. The same day I was passing by this antique shop and who is standing in there but Gary Kemp, just about to go off on tour to Japan. He said he was mad for it as well and to wait 10 days till they [Spandau Ballet] got back in the country… suddenly it hit me. I thought, ‘Christ, we have got the real top boys here’, all the big names in pop are suddenly ready and willing to do this… I knew then that we were off, and I just decided to go for all the rest of the faces and started to ring everyone up, asking them to do it.”
Vocalists: Robert “Kool” Bell (Kool & the Gang), Bono (U2), Pete Briquette (The Boomtown Rats), Adam Clayton (U2), Phil Collins (Genesis and solo artist), Chris Cross (Ultravox), Simon Crowe (The Boomtown Rats), Sarah Dallin (Bananarama), Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama), Johnny Fingers (The Boomtown Rats), Bob Geldof (The Boomtown Rats), Boy George (Culture Club), Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17), Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet), John Keeble (Spandau Ballet), Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet), Martin Kemp (Spandau Ballet), Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran), Marilyn, George Michael (Wham!), Jon Moss (Culture Club), Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet), Rick Parfitt (Status Quo), Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran), Francis Rossi (Status Quo), Sting (The Police), Andy Taylor (Duran Duran), James “J.T.” Taylor (Kool & the Gang), John Taylor (Duran Duran), Roger Taylor (Duran Duran), Dennis Thomas (Kool & the Gang), Midge Ure (Ultravox), Martyn Ware (Heaven 17), Jody Watley, Paul Weller (The Style Council), Keren Woodward (Bananarama), Paul Young