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"We Are the World" is a 1985 song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, produced and conducted by Quincy Jones and recorded by a supergroup of popular musicians billed as USA for Africa. The charity single was intended to raise funds to help famine relief efforts in Ethiopia.
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History
Harry Belafonte initiated the idea for a fundraising effort. His manager, Ken Kragen, suggested the multi-artist approach, inspired by the success of the British supergroup Band Aid and their 1984 fundraising single "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
The performers gathered at A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood, California, on January 28, 1985. Kragen selected the night of the American Music Awards to ensure as many artists as possible could attend. Jones famously advised them, in his written invitation, to "check your egos at the door." In all, 45 musicians attended the recording session, including Bob Geldof, who had arranged the Band Aid effort in the United Kingdom. Lead vocals were rotated among 21 of the performers, including Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Steve Perry, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
Columbia Records donated their manufacturing and distribution costs to the effort. "We Are the World" hit stores on Tuesday, March 7, 1985, and all 800,000 copies sold out before the end of the weekend. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number twenty-one. On April 5 (Good Friday in that year), more than 5,000 radio stations played the song at the same time. It became the United States’ number one single on April 13 and held the position for four weeks.
The song went on to win 1985 Grammys for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group.
Ultimately, the single sold 7.5 million copies in the US. It was released on an album, We Are the World, which sold over three million copies. In addition to "We Are the World," the album included previously unreleased songs by Prince, Springsteen, Turner and other artists. It also included another famine relief fundraising song, "Tears Are Not Enough", which was performed by Canadian supergroup Northern Lights.
Including revenues from the single, the album, the video and related merchandise, "We Are the World" raised about $50 million for famine relief.
On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which was aired September 12, 2006, Lionel Richie mentioned that "We Are the World" had 32 lawsuits brought up against the song.
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Solo vocalists (in order)
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Contributing vocalists
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Orchestra
The following session musicians performed the instrumental music:
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Television
An episode of Married... with Children had Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) and several elderly rockers record a benefit song called, "We Are The Old".
British satire show Spitting Image performed a spoof version called "We're Scared of Bob".
Chilean television show CQC performed a spoof version called "No seai' weón" in one of the programs of the 2006 season. Journalist Fernando Lasalvia composed it and he appeared singing the song with chilean television people of Chv Channel and Mega Channel. The lyrics were a protest against the politics of Canal 13 and TVN. These channels have prohibited the use of their images in other television channels' programs.
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Music
The group Culturcide covered the song as "They're Not the World," with new lyrics which accused USA for Africa of being more concerned with publicity than with charity.
Solange, a contestant in the Brazilian version of the Big Brother 4 television series, sang a version of "We are the World" called "Iarnuou." The cover was rated 1 on Brazilian airplay for a month.
Parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic released a style parody of "We Are the World" entitled "Don't Download This Song" as the lead single from his 12th studio album "Straight Outta Lynwood"; it is ironically available for free download from his Myspace page (www.myspace.com/weirdal)
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Tsunami relief
Steve Burguiere, head producer of the Glenn Beck Program, and his group, Stu & the Blackhearts, recorded a cover of the song in which he and other members of the staff mimicked the original singers. The remake raised over $15,000 for tsunami victims.
A wide array of Hong Kong artists collaborated on a Cantonese cover to fund relief.
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Commercial exploitation
The oil company Royal Dutch Shell attracted some controversy in 2006 when they adopted the music, and some of the lyrics, of the song (renamed “Growing and Winning”) for an internal motivational anthem. Intended to inspire staff the words included such phrases as “Now we’re on a journey, to streamline the way we work, and build a global enterprise” and “…we have moved on, growing day by day sharing strengths, we practice what is best - we are all a part of Shell’s global family”
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Other
Comedian Mitch Hedberg refers to the song "We Are the World" in his joke about couples' adoption of a song as "theirs" cheapening the original meaning of a song: "...we are the ones to make a better life, so let's keep on givin'...remember that song, baby? That night we had sex in the pet cemetery?"
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Trivia
Michael Jackson skipped the American Music Awards that night to record the chorus of the song as a guide to the other artists.
The lyric "there’s a choice we’re making / we’re saving our own lives" was originally written as "there’s a chance we’re taking / we’re taking our own lives," but was rewritten when it was feared the original phrasing's first part might look like the artists are patting themselves on the back while the last part might suggest suicide.1
The artists also discussed, whether they should sing "we are the ones that make a brighter day" instead of the original "better day". They eventually ended up with "brighter day".
VH-1’s Pop-Up Video stated that Waylon Jennings left the recording session due to a dispute over the lyrics. The dispute started when Stevie Wonder announced that he would like to substitute a line in Swahili. After a few rehearsals a full-fledged creative conflict broke out. Geldof pointed out that Ethiopians do not speak Swahili. Michael Jackson then proposed to keep his original line "Sha-lim sha-lingay". But after a few rehearsals it too ran into opposition, because it doesn't have a meaning. Eventually Al Jarreau cried "we can make a meaning" and came up with "One World, our word" which got changed one last time in "One world, our children".
The group name U.S.A. for Africa actually stands for United Support of Artists for Africa.
Within the song, Willie Nelson sings, "As God has shown us / by turning stones to bread..." In fact, in the Bible, Jesus was asked by Satan in Matthew 4 to turn stones to bread, but refused.
For a charity event, all artists who performed on "We are the World" turned up at the studio in Limousines (as most of them had participated in the American Music Awards) - except Bruce Springsteen, who arrived driving a pickup truck.
Among the singers who allegedly declined offers to sing on the recording included:
Madonna (on tour during the session and eventually turned down the offer)
Prince (alledgedly not comfortable in a room with so many other big stars)
All the singers on the record are American, with the exception of Bob Geldof (who is Irish) and Dan Aykroyd (who is Canadian).
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See also
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Reference
1 Interview with Quincy Jones for official video (1985)
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