diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
index 62387942a1d5..12230ddb6506 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
@@ -882,6 +882,15 @@ static int __cmd_record(struct record *rec, int argc, const char **argv)
 		}
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * If we have just single event and are sending data
+	 * through pipe, we need to force the ids allocation,
+	 * because we synthesize event name through the pipe
+	 * and need the id for that.
+	 */
+	if (data->is_pipe && rec->evlist->nr_entries == 1)
+		rec->opts.sample_id = true;
+
 	if (record__open(rec) != 0) {
 		err = -1;
 		goto out_child;
diff --git a/tools/perf/perf.h b/tools/perf/perf.h
index 007e0dfd5ce3..8fec1abd0f1f 100644
--- a/tools/perf/perf.h
+++ b/tools/perf/perf.h
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ struct record_opts {
 	bool	     overwrite;
 	bool	     ignore_missing_thread;
 	bool	     strict_freq;
+	bool	     sample_id;
 	unsigned int freq;
 	unsigned int mmap_pages;
 	unsigned int auxtrace_mmap_pages;
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/record.c b/tools/perf/util/record.c
index 4f1a82e76d39..9cfc7bf16531 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/record.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/record.c
@@ -138,6 +138,7 @@ void perf_evlist__config(struct perf_evlist *evlist, struct record_opts *opts,
 	struct perf_evsel *evsel;
 	bool use_sample_identifier = false;
 	bool use_comm_exec;
+	bool sample_id = opts->sample_id;
 
 	/*
 	 * Set the evsel leader links before we configure attributes,
@@ -164,8 +165,7 @@ void perf_evlist__config(struct perf_evlist *evlist, struct record_opts *opts,
 		 * match the id.
 		 */
 		use_sample_identifier = perf_can_sample_identifier();
-		evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, evsel)
-			perf_evsel__set_sample_id(evsel, use_sample_identifier);
+		sample_id = true;
 	} else if (evlist->nr_entries > 1) {
 		struct perf_evsel *first = perf_evlist__first(evlist);
 
@@ -175,6 +175,10 @@ void perf_evlist__config(struct perf_evlist *evlist, struct record_opts *opts,
 			use_sample_identifier = perf_can_sample_identifier();
 			break;
 		}
+		sample_id = true;
+	}
+
+	if (sample_id) {
 		evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, evsel)
 			perf_evsel__set_sample_id(evsel, use_sample_identifier);
 	}