Album: Single Release Only (2014)
Charted: 1
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In 2014 a group of celebrities mentored by choirmaster and broadcaster Gareth Malone recorded a cover of Avicii's "Wake Me Up" as the official 2014 Children In Need charity single. Their choral version reached #1 on the UK singles chart. It was the third chart-topper that Malone had created – he'd previously guided the Military Wives to the 2011 Christmas #1 with the song "Wherever You Are" and arranged Gary Barlow's Commonwealth Band who reached the summit with "Sing" in June 2012.
  • The celebrities that make up the All Star Choir are Margaret Alphonsi, Jo Brand, Radzi Chinyanganya, John Craven, Mel Giedroyc, Nitin Ganatra, Larry Lamb, Alice Levine, Fabrice Muamba, Craig Revel Horwood, Linda Robson and Alison Steadman. It was the first #1 for all of them.
  • This was the seventh Children In Need charity single to top the UK charts and the first since JLS' "Love You More" in 2010.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power

Emilio Castillo from Tower of PowerSongwriter Interviews

Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"They're Playing My Song

Gramm co-wrote this gorgeous ballad and delivered an inspired vocal, but the song was the beginning of the end of his time with Foreigner.

Janis Ian: Married in London, but not in New York

Janis Ian: Married in London, but not in New YorkSong Writing

Can you be married in one country but not another? Only if you're part of a gay couple. One of the first famous singers to come out as a lesbian, Janis wrote a song about it.

Steely Dan

Steely DanFact or Fiction

Did they really trade their guitarist to The Doobie Brothers? Are they named after something naughty? And what's up with the band name?

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New Words

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New WordsSong Writing

Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.

Matthew Wilder - "Break My Stride"

Matthew Wilder - "Break My Stride"They're Playing My Song

Wilder's hit "Break My Stride" had an unlikely inspiration: a famous record mogul who rejected it.