Glee stars have shown off their generous side by recording a special version of Do They Know It's Christmas? in aid of charity.

Actors including Lea Michele and Cory Monteith have recorded their own version of Band Aid's 1984 hit single and will be donating all the the money raised to The Band Aid Trust.

The charity was set up in 1985 and helps support projects in third world countries, and Bob Geldof, who co-wrote the track and co-founded Band Aid, is ecstatic about the new version.

He says, "The reverberations of this little song continue down the long 26 years since Midge Ure and I wrote it. It could not be more timely now that Glee with its vast global audience of young people re-introduce it to a whole new constituency who are probably unaware of the great tragedy unfolding amongst the hungry, poor and dying of Somalia as a result of drought and a bitter and pointless civil war. This song was made specifically with that intent.

"Band Aid would like to thank from the bottom of its heart all the producers and actors of Glee who have gone beyond their normal brief of entertainment and entered into the spirit and understanding of that recording and its artists 26 years ago and its many subsequent iterations, by opening their website to the topic of poverty and the poor and linking it through to the Band Aid and the ONE Campaign sites.

"This is entertainment with purpose."