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Granting Permission of “Let It Be" for “Ferry Aid"
Date range assessed by the fact that the disaster happened on March 6, 1987 and the “Let It Be” recording happened on “Sunday”, March 15, 1987
Boy George and other pop stars re-recorded on Sunday the Beatles' hit song ''Let It Be'' to raise money for the victims of the Belgian ferry disaster.
Paul McCartney's singing was taken from the original Beatles' version, and Boy George and more than 100 other celebrities joined in the chorus for the new record.
The Beatles rarely grant permission to record their songs, but McCartney and Michael Jackson, who owns the publishing rights to ''Let it Be,'' approved the project immediately.
Among the rock groups participating in the recording and an accompanying video tape were Bananarama and Doctor and the Medics.
''I think the thing that really upset me was seeing this little kid who was just eight years old completely on his own,'' said Boy George. ''He lost everybody. I've never really lost anybody in my family and I know I'd be really horrified if I did.''
The singer was referring to Martin Hartley, whose parents and grandparents were among the estimated 134 people who perished when the British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized March 6 off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. An estimated 409 people were saved.
Organizers hope the record, expected to go on sale March 23, will raise about $1.6 million.
The recording was sponsored by The Sun, Britain's largest-selling newspaper, which had offered special $1.50 tickets on the ferry crossing from Dover, England, to Zeebrugge. Scores of people who took up the offer were traveling on the doomed ferry.
Also Sunday, the youngest survivor of the disaster was christened a week late.
Ten-week-old Carly Zutic cried throughout the half-hour service at the Serbian Orthodox Church in Halifax, West Yorkshire in northwest England.
''We are lucky to be alive and today's ceremony has been something very special to us all,'' said Carly's mother, 20-year-old Julie Zutic.
Mrs. Zutic thrust her daughter into the arms of her 22-year-old husband, Petar, a moment before she was hurled against a window of the ferry as it capsized. Zutic, clinging to a table, held the baby until a rescuer lowered a ladder to them. Mrs. Zutic was hauled to safety by ropes.