Charity Motivation Song

At its time, this was a Who's Who of the Music Industry

"Good intentions and charity work are all admirable, but they don't make an awful song any less awful."

— Todd in the Shadows

There are some big problems in the world, and this song is here to remind you that you really ought to be doing something about them, with vivid descriptions of the problem and a call to action. Often the recourse of artists who feel like they should be using their worldwide fame to make a positive impact on the big problems faced by charitable organizations — or in other cases, just a powerful subject for a good song.

A more cynical potential motivation that's often suggested/joked about is that the performers don't care as much (if at all) about the cause in question as they are about the goodwill this can engender with the public and press.

Don't be surprised if the music video has a number you can call to donate today, or if the publisher elects to donate a portion of all album proceeds to a relevant charity. Also a popular choice for commercials soliciting charitable donations. This type of song was particularly popular in The '80s, when it was common to round up whole choruses of name musicians to sing one song in support of a cause; the hammy, earnest performances that often end up being mocked. Or rounding up an ensemble of name musicians to perform at one big charity event, such as Live Aid in 1985. In fact, it may be on the verge of becoming a Discredited Trope: Todd in the Shadows pointed out in his review of the 2010 "We Are the World" remake that it was hard to take the whole production seriously since the original had been so often parodied after its release in 1985.

Compare Protest Song, which is generally a specific protest against some specific event or practice and is more about social or political change than encouraging participation in existing charity work. See also Supergroup, when well-known performers join up to collaborate on regular musical projects.

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Examples:

• Michael Jackson has "Heal the World", "Man In The Mirror", and (to some extent) "Earth Song".
• Phil Collins: "Another Day in Paradise", "Colors", and "Long Long Way to Go"
• Genesis: "Land of Confusion" (the climax of the video, which features Spitting Image puppets, parodies the "all-star choir" concept with one made up of celebrity caricatures).
• Exposé: "Tell Me Why".
• Declan Galbraith: "Tell Me Why" (different song from Expose's).
• Black Eyed Peas' "Where Is The Love?" and its Flight of the Conchords parody "Think About It".
• "Charity" from Peter Schickele's Go for Broke.
• "Do They Know It's Christmas?", co-written by Bob Geldof (of Boomtown Rats) and Midge Ure (of Ultravox) and originally performed by Band Aid, was the first of the "Charity Supergroup" songs. Two remakes, though less popular than the original, both took the Christmas #1 slots for 1989 and 2004 (the latter was the last non-X-Factor Christmas #1 until 2009), while a third in 2014 may prove that there's still a little life left in the charity supergroup.
• "We Are the World", which followed on from Band Aid's success, and likewise sought to help.
  • Co-writer/performer Michael Jackson tried to follow this not only with the solo songs mentioned above, but with "What More Can I Give" at the Turn of the Millennium, which also enlisted a high-profile chorus of performers. It didn't work out too well.
• "Hands Across America" came from the same writers as "We Are the World".
• Elvis Presley: "In the Ghetto".
• Bruce Hornsby and the Range: "The Way It Is".
• In France, the charity Les Restaurants du Coeur, which gives food to the needy, is indissociable of the song and concerts from the sort-of band Les Enfoirés (lit. "The Bastards").
• The Onion's A.V. Club took a snarky look at these with the Inventory list "14 Overblown Charity/Advocacy Songs Besides 'We Are the World'".
• "Room In Your Heart" is a song performed by Beaker and Dr. Honeydew as they try to get Scrooge to donate to charity in The Muppet Christmas Carol. It was cut from the actual movie (and wasn't even filmed), but does appear on the soundtrack album.
• At the first Comic Relief USA benefit show in 1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic and Richard Belzer performed an original rap song, "Cut the Grief with Comic Relief", that humorously approached the topic of helping the homeless.
• Loreena McKennitt's "Breaking the Silence" for Amnesty International.
• "Tears Are Not Enough", by Northern Lights, Canada's response to "We Are The World".
  • The Québec music industry also produced an entirely French-language charity single titled Les yeux de la faim ("The Eyes of Hunger"), which featured a young Céline Dion. By contrast, "Tears Are Not Enough" contained only a few lines of Gratuitous French and was otherwise entirely in English.
• "Stars", by Hear 'n Aid, Heavy Metal's response to "We Are the World" (which didn't enlist metal performers for its all-star chorus).
• "Doctor in Distress", by Who Cares?, a supergroup of mid-level celebrities unsuccessfully trying to save the original run of Doctor Who. (The profits actually went to cancer research.)
• There are several notable examples in Country Music:
  • "One Big Family" (1985), created for the Heart of Nashville foundation to benefit the homeless. The featured artists were Roy Acuff, Rex Allen Jr., Lynn Anderson, Eddy Arnold, Chet Atkins, Bobby Bare, Lane Brody, T. Graham Brown, Little Jimmy Dickens, Karen Taylor-Good, Dobie Gray, Sonny James, George Jones, The Kendalls, Dave Kirby, Neal Matthews, Kathy Mattea, O.B. McClinton, Ronnie McDowell (who also wrote the song with Mike Reid and Troy Seals), Lorrie Morgan, Colleen Peterson, Webb Pierce, Boots Randolph, Jerry Reed, Jeannie C. Riley, Ronny Robbins, Ray Sawyer, Troy Seals, Jeannie Seely, Rick Schulman, Gordon Stoker, Tanya Tucker, Mack Vickery, Porter Wagoner, Duane West, Bergen White, Leona Williams, and Faron Young. According to this blog entry, the song was a Troubled Production due to RCA Records and MCA Nashville forbidding their artists from appearing on the song.
  • "Tomorrow's World" (1990), a multi-artist single honoring the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. Notable for being co-written by Kix Brooks before he gained fame as one-half of Brooks & Dunn. The artists on the song were Lynn Anderson, Butch Baker, Shane Barmby, Billy Hill, Suzy Bogguss, Kix Brooks, T. Graham Brown, the Burch Sisters, Holly Dunn, Foster & Lloyd, Vince Gill, William Lee Golden^note then-recently fired from The Oak Ridge Boys, Highway 101, Shelby Lynne, Johnny Rodriguez, Dan Seals, Les Taylor^note who had just left the band Exile, Pam Tillis (who also wrote the song), Mac Wiseman, and Kevin Welch.
  • "Hope" (1996), honoring the T.J. Martell Foundation for cancer research. It featured John Berry, Terri Clark, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Tracy Lawrence, Little Texas, Neal McCoy, Tim McGraw, Lorrie Morgan, Marty Stuart, Travis Tritt, and Trisha Yearwood.
  • "What If", by Reba McEntire in 1997. Money made by the single went to the Salvation Army.
  • "One Heart at a Time" (1998), a charity single for cystic fibrosis. It featured Garth Brooks, Billy Dean, Faith Hill, Neal McCoy, Michael McDonald, Olivia Newton-John, Victoria Shaw (who also wrote the song), and Bryan White.
  • Garth's own "We Shall Be Free" is also an example. It's also a benevolent Protest Song.
• "Self Destruction" by the Stop the Violence Movement. Headed by KRS-One, the song featured many New York-based rappers addressing rampant black-on-black violence in big cities.
  • West Coast rappers responded with their own multi-rapper collaboration "We're All In The Same Gang", which had the same premise but centered on gang violence.
• Artists United Against Apartheid's "Sun City", organized by Steve Van Zant of The E Street Band, combines the charity supergroup style of Band-Aid and USA for Africa with a Protest Song; the assembled rock and rap stars pledged, via the song's lyrics, not to perform at segregationist South African resorts like Sun City, as they believed that doing so would be tantamount to accepting what the apartheid regime was doing.
• "Voices That Care", organized by record producer David Foster, featured a group of actors, singers and athletes supporting the American troops fighting in the 1991 Gulf War, which happened to end on the very day the song's video released. The profits were given to the International Red Cross. Céline Dion was prominently featured despite having only "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" under her belt at that point as a U.S. hit.
• Subverted: the 1997 all-star remake of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" wasn't originally intended as a charity single, but it was well-received enough to be released as one anyway. Proceeds went to Children in Need.
  • Played straight with the 2014 Spiritual Successor "God Only Knows", which actually was created as a Children In Need single. (But not the official 2014 Children In Need single, that honor went to a So Okay, It's Average Gareth Malone-produced cover of Avicii's "Wake Me Up".)
• Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation Project is a Charity Motivation Album, created to benefit the congregations of churches lost in fires. Its lead single "Lean On Me" (an original composition, not the Bill Withers song) featured solos by Bono, Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly and Crystal Lewis; a remix included as a Hidden Track added the voices of En Vogue, New Edition, K-Ci and Jojo, Divine, Boyz II Men, Dru Hill, Xscape and Destiny's Child.
• Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart isn't directly about a charity cause, but the earnings of the album went directly to charity.
• The Glee cover of "Last Christmas" has similar origins, as it was originally released as a benefit for the Grammy Awards' music education programs (and a year before their Christmas Episode, no less).
• The entire album Diana, Princess of Wales: Tribute counts as this as it was assembled and released mere months after Diana's sudden death, and proceeds went to a fund established in her memory. Curiously absent from the release is Elton John's "Candle In The Wind 1997/Something About The Way You Look Tonight", also released to benefit the fund, which is the last charity single ever to top the American singles chart (the 2010 "We Are the World" came close, peaking at #2).
• Being a fictional 1980s pop band Jem And The Holograms has a few of these. "People Who Care" is their most popular. Their rival band, The Misfits, avidly hates these types of songs and generally hates how Jem always sings about romance and The Power of Friendship.
• Echo Der Mädchen by the Swiss Artists for Unicef is unique in that it is not at all schmaltzy or glurgy in any form and diminishes any call-to-action in its lyrics. It's mainly just a tearjerker.
• In late 2016, the first release on the newly relaunched Chrysalis Records was a Cover Version of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" credited to Friends of Jo Cox (a Labour Party MP who'd been assassinated earlier that year). Participants included KT Tunstall, David Gray, Ricky Wilson of Kaiser Chiefs, Steve Harley, and MP4 (a band consisting of MPs from several parties), and the proceeds went to a charitable foundation established in Cox's name.
• Randy Stonehill and Phil Keaggy's "Who Will Save the Children?"
• "Let the Music Heal Your Soul" by Bravo All Stars, which features Touché, The Boyz, Caught in the Act, The Moffatts, Scooter, Aaron Carter, Backstreet Boys, Mr. President, N Sync, Squeezer, Blümchen, R'n'G and Gil. The proceeds were donated to the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Foundation.
• New Kids on the Block with "This One's for the Children", a single from their 1989 holiday album. The proceeds were donated to United Cerebral Palsy.
• A variation occurs with 'The Money Song' from Avenue Q, which promotes the more selfish reasons for giving to good causes (such as the general good feeling you get from it, or the chance of impressing someone you like). After all, in the end, one's reasons for making charitable donations matter less than the fact that they're giving at all. As part of the song, the cast members go out to collect money from the audience, justified in-universe as being a whip-round for Kate's dream of building a school for monsters. In reality, these donations are sent to a local charity after the show; for instance, the original Broadway show sent them to 'Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS'.
  When you help others,
  You can't help helping yourself!
• Nordeste Já (Northeast Now) was a single featuring two songs: "Chega de Mágoa" (No More Heartache) e "Seca D'Água" (Water Drought). They were sung by Criação Coletiva (Collective Creation) which featured 155 Brazilian artists.
• Spirit Of the Forest, which was organized by the rainforest conservation organization Earth Love Fund which was founded by music producers Vic Coppersmith-Heaven and Kenny Young (Young also wrote the song) alongside music composer Nick Glennie-Smith. The single features two versions of the song (three if you count the instrumental version):
  • The 12 A version has the solos performed by Chris Rea, Mr. Mister, XTC, DavidGilmour, Brian Wilson, Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr, Fish, Belinda Carlisle, Deborah Harry, Bonnie Raitt, Kate Bush, Steven Van Zandt (aka Little Steven from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band), Jon Anderson, Sam Brown, Escape Club, Olivia Newton-John & Louise Goffin. The music video of this version debuted on the television special Our Common Future.
  • The 12 AA version keeps Rea, Goffin and Anderson, but replaces the other artists with Iggy Pop, The Ramones, Donna Summer, Thomas Dolby, Was (Not Was), Kim Wilde, Taylor Dayne, Brother Beyond, Richie Havens, Rita Coolidge & Lacy J. Dalton.
  • The chorus for both versions consists of LL Cool J, Africa Bambaata, The B-52s, Plasmatics, Shikisha, Fleetwood Mac, Gentlemen Without Weapons (aka Vic, Kenny and Nick themselves), Amy Sky, Dolette McDonald, Big Country, It Bites, Michael Des Barres, Marc Jordan, Lisa Bonet, Lenny Kravitz, Andy Fairweather-Lowe, Jungle Brothers, Raging Hormones, Johnnie Warman, Bruce Foxton & David Clayton-Thomas. Both versions also feature a verse in Portuguese sung by famous Brazilian artists like Gilberto Gil, Sandra De Sá, Ivan Lins, Renato Russo, Gal Costa, Ney Matogrosso, Marisa Monte, Rita Lee & Djavan.
• "Earth", an Earth Day song written by Lil Dicky and featuring him and Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Halsey, Brendon Urie, Wiz Khalifa, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, and several others, seems to be a parody at first: a colorful CGI music video with family-unfriendly lyrics and characters such as marijuana and HPV, as well as Casting Gags (such as the Australian Sia being cast as a kangaroo, and Grande as a zebra^note "Am I black or am I white?"), it is a charity single for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which funds efforts to curb climate change.
• Marvin Gaye's song "What's Going On" is a prime candidate for this:
  • There's the 1988 version by Live Aid Armenia; later renamed Rock Aid Armenia; which was released in aid of those suffering from the 1988 Armenian earthquake. It features Aswad, Errol Brown, Richard Darbyshire, Gail Ann Dorsey, Boy George, David Gilmour, Nick Heyward, Mykaell S. Riley, Labi Siffre, Helen Terry, Ruby Turner, Elizabeth Westwood and the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra.
  • There's the 1994 version by Music Relief '94, released in memory of the Rwandan genocide. It features C. J. Lewis, Andrew Roachford, Yazz, Aswad, Edwin Starr, Peter Cunnah of D Ream, Kim Appleby, MAD Jones of BAD, Rozalla, Tony Di Bart, Paul Young, Paul Carrack, Angie Brown of Ramona 55, Jimmy Ruffin, Omar Lye-Fook, Apache Indian, Worlds Apart, Kaos, The Pasadenas, Gus Isidore, Jools Holland, Mark King of Level 42, Nik Kershaw, Larry Adler and Dannii Minogue.
  • And finally the 2001 version by Artists Against AIDS Worldwide. The maxi single features 9 versions of it. Noteworthy versions include:
    • The Dupri Original Mix, which had 2 music videos. This version was sung by *NSYNC, Aaron Lewis, Alicia Keys, Backstreet Boys, Bono, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Darren Hayes, Destiny's Child, Eve, Fred Durst, Gwen Stefani, Ja Rule, Jennifer Lopez, Jermaine Dupri, Mary J. Blige, Michael Stipe, Nas, Nelly, Nelly Furtado, Nona Gaye and P. Diddy.
    • The London Version sung by Bono and Chris Martin.
    • The Fred Durst's Reality Check Mix version, sung by Elijah Blue, Perry Farrell and Scott Weiland.
    • The Mick Guzauski's Pop Mix version, sung by Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Bono, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Darren Hayes, Destiny's Child, Jagged Edge, Justin Timberlake, Michael Stipe, Monica, Nelly Furtado, Nona Gaye, Pat Monahan, TLC and Usher.
    • The Dupri R&B Mix version, sung by *NSYNC, Alicia Keys, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, Eve, Gwen Stefani, Ja Rule, Jagged Edge, Jennifer Lopez, Jermaine Dupri, Lil' Kim, Mary J. Blige, Monica, Nas, Nelly, Nelly Furtado, Nona Gaye, P. Diddy, TLC and Usher.
    • The Neptunes This One's For You Mix version, sung by Angie Martinez, Da Brat, Fabolous, LL Cool J, Mobb Deep, Noreaga, Queen Latifah, Royce Da 5'9" and Sonja Blade.
• U Will Know, from the soundtrack of the 1994 movie Jason's Lyric, sung by Black Men United, consisting of: Aaron Hall, After 7, Al B. Sure!, Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight, Christopher Williams, D.R.S., D'Angelo (who also wrote the song), Damion Hall, El DeBarge, Gerald LeVert, H-Town, Intro, Joe, Keith Sweat, Lenny Kravitz on guitar, Lil' Joe (from The Rude Boys), Portrait, R. Kelly, Silk, Sovory, Stokley (lead singer of Mint Condition), Tevin Campbell, Raphael Wiggins and Dwayne Wiggins (from Tony! Toni! Toné!) and Usher. Proceeds were donated to the United Negro College fund, the Rewind Relief fund and the Children's Defense fund.
• "Hey Hey Rise Up", the first new music recorded by Pink Floyd (specifically David Gilmour and Nick Mason, with two other backing musicians) since 1994, was released in April 2022 to benefit humanitarian efforts in Ukraine after the Russian invasion. The song was created around an a cappella performance of "Oi u luzi chervona kalyna" ("Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow"), a Ukrainian folk/resistance song from the World War I era, by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the Ukrainian band Boombox. Khlyvnyuk, credited as a featured artist, had cut short his band's American tour to return to fight for his homeland, and performed the song in military wear.
• The 2009 BBC Children in Need Medley was basically a "who's who" of the British cartoon industry, with some American toons as well. It featured Roary the Racing Car, Fifi and the Flowertots, The Wombles, In the Night Garden..., Angelina Ballerina, Scooby-Doo, Bagpuss, Bob the Builder, Ben 10, Thunderbirds, Postman Pat, SpongeBob SquarePants, Fireman Sam, Camberwick Green, Thomas & Friends, Pingu, Teletubbies, The Sooty Show, The Koala Brothers, Peppa Pig, Rubbadubbers, and Paddington (1975) amongst others, singing a variety of songs mashed together.
• Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, producer Bob Ezrin organized a supergroup of prominent Canadian music artists to perform a cover of Wavin' Flag to benefit relief efforts in Haiti. Artists featured on the track included: K'naan, Nelly Furtado, Sam Roberts, Avril Lavigne, Pierre Bouvier, Tyler Connolly, Kardinal Offishall, Jully Black, Lights, Deryck Whibley, Serena Ryder, Jacob Hoggard, Emily Haines, Hawksley Workman, Drake, Chin Injeti, Pierre Lapointe, Elisapie Isaac, Ima, Esthero, Corb Lund, Bob Ezrin, Fefe Dobson, Nikki, Yanofsky, Matt Mays, Justin Nozuka, and Justin Bieber.
• In 2020, a supergroup of Canadian musicians by the name of ArtistsCAN recorded a cover of Bill Wither's "Lean On Me" to raise money for the Canadian Red Cross during the Covid-19 pandemic. Participating artists included Bryan Adams, Jann Arden, Justin Bieber, Michael Bublé, Fefe Dobson, Scott Helman, Shawn Hook, Avril Lavigne, Geddy Lee, Marie-Mai, Sarah McLachlan, Johnny Orlando, Josh Ramsay, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tyler Shaw, Walk Off the Earth, Donovan Woods, and Olivia Lunny, as well as a surprise cameo by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself.

Parodies:

• Chumbawamba released a filk of "Let It Be" under the pseudonym of "Scab Aid," a parody of The Beatles's work with Ferry Aid. It featured such lyrics as:
  This manufactured sympathy, drowing in hypocrisy
  Smiles to clinch the deals to boost the sales
  All the owners of the printing presses
  And popstars crying phony tears
  Nothing bleeds like the hearts of the millionaires
  For the charts and the state machine
  Consumers of the world agree
  Nothing sells like disaster, let it be
• "We're Sending Our Love Down the Well" from The Simpsons's episode "Radio Bart", which featured Krusty the Clown, his good friend Sting, and a host of Springfield-associated luminaries such as Sideshow Mel and the Capital City Goofball.
• Saturday Night Live had two cold openings spoof these. Recurring characters of the period, led by Frankenstein's Monster (Phil Hartman), sang "Fire Bad!" in response to the Rodney King riots of 1992. When Michael Jordan first retired from basketball in 1993, the cast spoofed such acts as The B-52s and The Proclaimers with a medley of their hits rewritten to beg him to return to the sport; the real Aerosmith pitched in with a "Dream On" rewrite.
  • They also did a parody of the new version of We Are The World and its overproduction: Amongst the group were Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, and Willie Nelson with others
  • Another parody used the format (one of the singers was Jerry Garcia, played by Chris Farley), but the subject of the song was explaining the intricacies of Clinton's Whitewater scandal, so it was less charity-driven and more Public Service Announcement-driven.
  • And ANOTHER one, but this time with Michael Bolton and cast for a special cause, Musicians for Free-Range Chickens, produced in part by "Whoopi Goldberg" (played by Chris Rock).
• An In Living Color! parody of "We Are the World" featured the cast as musicians who were either has-beens (i.e. Yoko Ono) or struggling with financial problems at the time (Willie Nelson); the song was asking the listeners to support them.
• The video for Pulp's "Bad Cover Version" is a parody of the "Do They Know It's Christmas" video, featuring celebrity impersonators of noted musicians performing the song.
• "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en" by North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative, a one-off Super Group featuring Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, Feist, Beck, Karen O, Russell Mael, and Thurston Moore, among many others. Oddly enough, it's both a parody of charity singles and an actual charity single itself: All proceeds went to UNICEF.
• On 30 Rock, Jack has a brilliant idea to record a generic charity song to have in readiness for the next natural disaster to scoop the other networks. Jenna touchingly sings "That thing that happened/was so sad/we can't believe it was so bad/when the stuff we know occurred..." Unfortunately, they air it hurriedly on news of the devastation of a small island that turns out to be Mel Gibson's vacation compound.
  • Another episode has Jack learning that his newly discovered father Milton Greene needs a kidney transplant and that he's not a suitable donor: Using his connections and clout in the entertainment industry, he ends up getting a group of famous musicians to record "He Needs A Kidney", a charity song with the unusually specific aim of finding a kidney donor for just one person. The song, which featured real musicians such as Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Moby, and two-thirds of Beastie Boys, was released as a digital download after the show aired, with proceeds going to the National Kidney Foundation.
• "We Are the Children of the World" from Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It's the theme tune of a charity that supports children in third world countries; after all, their organs are ripe for harvesting for the benefit of wealthy Westerners.
• "Sue All the World" from Napster Bad, featuring Metallica, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Madonna, Elton John, Nutty McShithead and Sheryl Crow.
• "Radi-Aid" is a Norwegian parody of this, mocking simplistic and patronising charity appeals for "pathetic Africans" by urging Africans to donate radiators to help freezing children in Norway.
• Wag the Dog features a brief USA For Africa parody called "American Dream", staged by the White House spin-doctor to drum up support for a non-existent war against Albania, just before the election.
• Brüno (2009) ends with the titular Camp Gay organizing an all-star charity song for...well, any worthy cause will suit his needs; the song is really about how awesome Bruno is. Features appearances by Elton John, Snoop Dogg, Bono, Slash, and Chris Martin!
• "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Don't Download This Song", mocking Digital Piracy Is Evil.
• Garnet and Gure: This animated short ends with a "We Are the World" parody, entreating listeners to help wipe out the zombie virus.
• The Film Renegado ended his fourth anniversary special with "Don't You Know It's Ad-Blocker?"
• Spitting Image spoofed "We Are The World" and "Do They Know Its Christmas" in 1985 with "We're Scared Of Geldof", where it is implied that most of the people gathered to sing for charity are only there because they are terrified of saying no to Bob Geldof.
  We're scared of Bob, we're really frightened
  And every time we hear that Irish voice our sphincters all get tightened!
• The music video of The Ramones "I Want Something To Believe In" also spoofs charity singles.
• Sonny with a Chance once had a "We Are The World"-esque ensemble number about skinny pants syndrome (loss of blood flow in the legs due to wearing ridiculously tight pants). It was also a parody of a Disney Channel charity song that played it straight.
• The ending credits of Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star has a parody charity single featuring actual former child stars.
• Straddling the line between parody and an actual Charity Motivation Song is Brett Dommino's "How to Make a Hit Charity Single." While it makes fun of the tropes in these types of songs forwards and backwards, it actually was used to raise money for Comic Relief.
  Brett Domino: So we need the lyrics to say "donate your money to Comic Relief" without literally saying those words.
  Steven Peavis: Unless...we do literally say those words.
• Sam & Mickey's "A Rap For A Cause" has Piss-Take Rappers "Yas-money and B-dizzle"^note Yasmin and Barbie try to endorse 11 different charities (and corporate sponsor Diet Snapple) by listing several societal issues, with varying degrees of importance.
• Ylvis produced a song titled "Sammen Finner vi Frem," which gathered a ton of famous Norwegian artists in the same room to raise money for... an information sign in Averøy, Norway. It features, among other things, a German tourist who didn't know where to drive due to the lack of information.
• "We Care A Lot" from Faith No More registers a Take That! against these:
  We care a lot! About starvation and the food that Live Aid bought
• Homestar Runner: Parodied in the Strong Bad Email "bottom 10". As an example of his number 2 pet peeve, "Songs that try to pass off la la's, na na's, and doot do's as legit lyrics", Strong Bad gives the example of Limozeen's "Feed the Childrens". It's apparently a charity song with a chorus made entirely of scatting, in a parody of "Do They Know It's Christmastime?".
  Na na, la la la
  Hey hey, doo-doot doo!
  Na na, la la la
  Hey hey, doo-doot doo!
  Na na, la la la
  Hey hey, doo-doot doo!
  (Cue Record Needle Scratch)
  Strong Bad: Ugh, what were they thinking? More like, "We had to feed our childrens, so we made this terrible song."
• The Unraveled episode "Bowser's military hierarchy" ends with one of these, "We Are The Toads" by Polygons for Peace^note BDG and his coworkers from Polygon.com, done to protest against the loss of innocent mook life (especially after BDG uncovers how Mario is a war criminal).
• The Scott The Woz episode "The Commercial Failure" ends with Scott and his friends making a song called "Just Buy the Game" to make sure no game gets left behind, regardless of its quality. It soon goes south when Scott's friends begin threatening violence against people who don't buy the games, forcing Scott to step in and change the lyrics into not buying games you should, but buying games you want.

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