organized by and held on the afternoon and evening of , , playing to a total of 40,000 people at in . It was first benefit concert of its magnitude in world history, featuring an all-star of performers that included , , , and . An was released later in and a was released in , with later releases for home video.

In 2005, the film was re-issued on DVD accompanied by a new documentary. The concert raised US$243,418.50 for Bangladesh relief, which was administered by .

Sales of the album and DVD continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF.
torrential rains causing devastating floods and threatening a humanitarian disaster.
regarding a means of providing help to the situation.

Harrison recorded single "Joi Bangla" in a dual-pronged effort to raise funds.
Shankar also asked Harrison's advice regarding a small fund-raising concert in the . Instead, Harrison took over and persuaded his friends to join him at a large concert at Madison Square Garden.

The event was organised within five weeks.
Harrison first asked his fellow to appear. agreed to take part in the concert, however Harrison stipulated that Lennon's wife not perform with him.

Lennon agreed, but left New York two days before the event following an argument with Ono regarding his and Harrison's agreement that she not participate.^{[citations The Beatles' legal problems on their break-up. , however, readily agreed to appear.}

December. Clapton was still in the grip of a addiction, and had been unable to attend any rehearsals until the final soundcheck. This was the first live performance of " " and was the first time the public was made aware that that it was Clapton who played the solo on ' recording.

^{[ club, he did not play live again until January .}

Both the afternoon and evening shows were filmed and recorded for an album, with overseeing the sound recording. The film, released in , combined images from both shows with George Harrison's preference of the performances of the songs.
Harrison later complained that half the camera operators appeared to have been indulging in illegal substances, which left the The opening of the film features footage from a press conference to announce the concert with Harrison and Shankar.

Harrison is asked by a reporter: "With all the enormous problems in the world, how did you happen to choose this one to do something about?"
"Because I was asked by a friend if I would help, you know, that's all," was Harrison's reply.
have camped out for tickets to the shows.

to the audience. Shankar additionally asked the audience not to during the performance. Shankar and Khan then proceed to their instruments and then stop after about 90 seconds.

The audience, apparently believing they had heard an entire piece, respond with enthusiastic , to which Shankar replies: "Thank you, if you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the program more." They then launch into a 17-minute After an interlude of footage from backstage, showing Spector, Harrison and other performers making their way to the stage, Harrison starts off the portion with a string of songs from his hit album, He is backed by a large band, including two drummers, and matching strokes, , , two , and , on , a horn section and a small of backing vocalists, many of whom are also playing . He then turns the concert over to his friends.

During Preston's song, "That's the Way God Planned It", the organist gets up from his bench and dances across the stage and back again. This footage is taken during the evening performance. Starr sings his hit song " " and appears flustered as he forgets some of the words.

Russell offers a medley and Harrison performs some of hits he wrote with . appears for a semi-acoustic set of his songs, and the film is capped off with two more songs, closing with Harrison's song, "Bangla Desh".

A two-disc special edition DVD of The Concert for Bangladesh was issued in 2005, with the concert on disc one and a Bangladesh Revisited with George Harrison and Friends, on the second disc.
the concert. talks about organizing the concert in voiceovers only.

of the historic importance of the event, as well as executive .
The documentary reveals how quickly the concert came together, with Harrison working the phone during June and July of 1971 to ask his friends to join the show. was booked for August 1 because it was the only open date available.

Musicians began gathering in New York about a week beforehand for rehearsals.
Notably absent from the preperations was Clapton, who was in the grips of addiction. for a week before the show.

With Clapton still absent, started "hanging around", hoping to be asked to join. Harrison tapped , who had played in 's band, and bassist volunteered to work with Davis in rehearsals. Another musician, joined on lead guitar as well.

Organizers then Clapton that he did not have to come, but Clapton insisted he would play and finally showed up a day before the concert. He performed without benefit of rehearsal, and "he was brilliant," Harrison said.
Clapton, for his part, recalls the time as a period of "retirement" and that "I really made it hard for myself" in the concert, choosing to play a hollow-body guitar for the bulk of the songs, including his solo on " ", when a solid-body electric guitar (such as a or ) would have been more appropriate.

There are also short features on the making of the film, the release of the album and the artwork and concert photography. Along with the extensive collection of still photos for the album package, stills photographer Barry Feinstein reveals that the was taken by him during the concert.
This record was Dylan's first official live release.

Dylan's label, in exchange for being allowed to include his set as part of the package. When the album was reissued on CD in reissued the cassette version.
The two-CD set was re-released in 2001, and Harrison had been working on a remastered and expanded deluxe edition prior to his death.

It was released in by and along with the film on a special edition two-DVD set.
former, Krusty plays it while a visitor at the Simpsons household, and in the latter, has in his record collection, the Concert Against Bangladesh, with a picture of a mushroom cloud on the cover, reflecting the popular perception of Hindu-Muslim rivalry in the region. In reality, India supported Bangladesh during its struggle for independence.