• on air
• artists
• music news
• gigs & tickets
• breakfast
• o2 academy

Band Aid 20 Outsells Entire Singles Charts

added 06 December 2004 at 12.40

As expected the Band Aid 20 charity single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ has taken up residency in the charts at Number 1, outselling the whole rest of the singles charts put together.

The track was released on CD single though Mercury Records on Monday November 29 and, not surprisingly, rocketed into the charts at Number 1, where it has stayed for the second week (December 5) and it looks set to remain there until Christmas.

According to reports, the track has sold over 300,000 copies already, making it the fastest selling single since Elton John’s re-release of ‘Candle In The Wind’ back in 1997. This also means that the track has outsold all the other singles in the Top 40 combined.

HMV’s Gennaro Castaldo explained, “It sold more than 15 times the number two track, ‘You Can Do It’ by Ice Cube. At this rate it is on its way to breaking the million barrier.”

However it has a long way to go before it beats the original version of the single which was released in 1984 and shifted and astonishing 750,000 copies in its first week and went on to sell just over 3.5million.

The full length video for the track is also available online on a pay per view basis (the video costs £1.00 per stream or £2.50 for a permanent download) and the track itself can be downloaded for £1.49 with the B-side - the 1984 recording - downloadable for £0.99.  Click here to stream or download the video or Click here to download the track

Text XFMNEWS to 83XFM for the biggest Xfm Music News sent to your mobile (more info)

To discuss this story on the Xfm News Messageboard click here.

Back to Music News 

Have you got a music news story? E-mail the Xfm News Desk below.

Matt Everitt

• send to a friend