Ferry Aid


Ferry Aid were a British-American ensemble group, brought together to record the song "Let It Be" in 1987. The single was released following the Zeebrugge Disaster; on 6 March 1987 the ferry had capsized, killing 193 passengers and crew. All proceeds from sales of the single were donated to the charity set up in the aftermath of the disaster. The recording was organised by The Sun newspaper, after it had sold cheap tickets for the ferry on that day. "Let It Be" was written by Paul McCartney and originally recorded by The Beatles in 1969.

Recording

, then with The Sun newspaper, organised the recording of the song by recruiting record producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman. They then put an invitation out to the music industry for artists to contribute their vocals to the song. Although many stars were initially reluctant to join forces with the newspaper, eventually artists such as Boy George, Kate Bush, Gary Moore and Mark Knopfler agreed to take part. Original writer, Paul McCartney also contributed to the song, although his performance were recorded independently in his own studios. It was later revealed that McCartney used his voice of the original recording of the 1970 Beatles track and added it to the Ferry Aid recording. The song was recorded over three days between 14 and 16 March 1987 and the single was released on Monday 23 March 1987. The first artist to record his part was Mark King on the Saturday morning, while the last was Paul King on Monday evening.
In the original Beatles recording George Harrison did the guitar solo but for the purposes of this song – as shown in the video – the solo was divided with Gary Moore first, then Mark Knopfler, then back to Gary Moore with Moore's parts being more 'rock' and Knopfler's being more laid-back.

Performers

The following artists performed solo spots on the song:
The closing chorus was sung by an ensemble choir involving many of the above celebrities as well other recording artists. The back-up chorus consisted of:
The B-side of the 7" single is a gospel version of "Let It Be", made up on the spot by improvising. The 12" single mixed by Burni Adams and Jamie Bromfield has "Let It Be " on the B-side.

Parody

The anarchist band Chumbawamba anonymously released a parody of the song, Scab Aid, a criticism of The Sun newspaper and the motives of the contributing performers which they regarded as hypocritical.

Chart performance

"Let It Be" reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in its first week on 4 April 1987, and remained at that position for three weeks. It was the 13th best selling single of the year in the UK; it was certified gold for shipping over 500,000 copies.
The single was also a number one hit in Norway and Switzerland, and reached the top 10 in several European countries.
Chart Peak
position
UK Singles Chart1
Austrian Singles Chart4
Dutch GfK chart4
Dutch Top 403
French Singles Chart8
Irish Singles Chart2
Norwegian Singles Chart1
Swedish Singles Chart9
Swiss Singles Chart1