'The X Factor' charity singles - A retrospective

Yesterday, Simon Cowell took a break from his tiny X Factor side-project in the USA to announce the details of this year's X Factor charity single.

Featuring all the finalists from the reality show, X Factor will be hoping that its cover of Rose Royce's 'Wishing on a Star' can secure the show its fourth consecutive group number one and raise a whole load of wonga for ACT & Children's Hospices.

To celebrate the release, Reality Bites takes a look back at the three previous charity releases.

'Hero' (Mariah Carey)
A rare chance to see the likes of Scott Bruton and Austin Drage in a pop video, this Help For Heroes fundraiser went straight to number one, selling 313,000 copies - more than the rest of the Top 10 combined.

The video gives us uncommon glimpses of forgotten girlbands Bad Lashes and (the brilliantly named) Girlband. It reminds us how amazing fourth-placed Ruth Lorenzo was, showcases quite clearly why Alexandra Burke became a runaway winner and even teases us with a little romantic duet between Eggnogg Quigglet and Diana 'The Claw' Vickers in the finale.



'You Are Not Alone' (Michael Jackson)
Probably the weakest of the three previous charity singles, this rather limp Michael Jackson cover didn't have any problems topping the charts, though, thanks to the combined powers of Jedward, Joe McElderry and... Rikki Loney.

As with all of the charity singles, the eventual winner (McElderry) and runner-up (Olly Murs) take centre stage, while the likes of also-rans Lloyd Daniels and Rachel Adedeji are relegated to bit parts. It was probably for the best.



'Heroes' (David Bowie)
It's the only time you'll ever hear us mention Katie Waissel in the same sentence as David Bowie. Last year's X Factor group release was a cover of the Thin White Duke's classic 'Heroes'. The likes of Storm Lee and Diva Fever were ditched and Matt Cardle, One Direction and Cher Lloyd took the limelight.

Personal highlights include the all-too-brief dancing cameo from Wagner and Cher Lloyd's bizarre attempt to inject some streetwise gun hand-gestures into the video. Once again, it stormed to number one and raised tons of cash.



What is your favourite X Factor charity single? What do you think to this year's song selection?