Waylon Jennings is nowhere to be found in the video
for We Are the World,
even though he's credited on the album and the reason
he stormed out of the recording session may surprise you.
In late 1984, music legend and humanitarian Harry Belafonte spearheaded
an effort to bring emergency relief to famine ravaged Africa.
The idea was a charity single featuring America's best known
music stars.
We had everyone to stand next to each other.
That's Paul Simon. That's Bob Dylan.
Yeah, so check your ego.
The result was We Are the World,
a
star-studded 1985 single benefiting the nonprofit USA for Africa Foundation,
one of the fastest selling pop singles in music history.
We Are The ultimately sold more than 20 million copies,
raising a staggering $75 million.
It also went on to win 4 Grammy Awards,
including awards for both record and song of the year.
The song remains one of the music
industry's most successful charitable endeavors ever.
Sadly, during the decades that have passed since the release
of the single,
several of the stars who participated are no longer with
us.
Landing Kenny Rogers for We Are The World was a
major coup given the massive degree of success that Rogers
had experienced during the late 1970s and early 80s on
his way to over two dozen #1 country hits.
Not only did Rogers contribute vocals to the single,
sharing a microphone with fellow legend Paul Simon,
he also made a lesser known but equally important contribution
to Where Are the World?
According to KCRW, Rogers offered his own Lion's Share recording
studios in Beverly Hills for a secret recording session where
Lionel Richie,
Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones created the backing
track the night before the main vocals were recorded with
the rest of the stars.
Rogers remained a popular live performer until his death in
2020 at the age of 81.
As his obituary in the New York Times pointed out,
he was the first country artist to perform at the
kind of arenas typically reserved for major rock and pop
acts and sold in excess of 100 million records.
Given his long association with producer Quincy Jones,
it wasn't surprising that Honey voiced R&B singer James Ingram
would be tapped to contribute a verse.
Among his many hits were a collaboration with Michael Jackson
that appeared on the latter's iconic Thriller album Yeah,
MO Be There, a 1983 duet with The Doobie Brothers
frontman Michael McDonald and Somewhere Out There,
his chart topping duet with Linda Ronstadt.
From the soundtrack to the animated feature and American Tail,
Ingram's smooth baritone arrives fairly early in the song,
wedged directly between verses sung by Kenny Rogers and Tina
Turner.
Ingram also made quite an impression visually as Rolling Stones
minute by minute breakdown of the We Are The World
video equipped.
James Ingram has shown up for the session in a
shiny silver tracksuit,
as if he came directly from a workout on the
space shuttle.
Ingram died at age 66 in January 2019,
with outlets reporting at the time that he'd been suffering
from brain cancer.
Quincy Jones shared a statement with Billboard to celebrate Ingram's
talent,
saying with that soulful whiskey sounding voice,
James Ingram was simply magical.
Every beautiful note that James sang pierced your essence and
comfortably made itself at home.
Tina Turner was in a unique position when she walked
into A and M Studios to record her part for
Rear of the World after leaving Ike Turner almost a
decade earlier, halting both their notoriously troubled marriage and successful
musical partnership.
She was considered by many to be a washed up
has been until the arrival of her
1984 Private Dancer album that marked the comeback of all
comebacks that propelled her to a higher degree of fame
than she'd ever experienced before.
Things did get a little punchy in the recording session,
which ran into the wee hours of the morning,
leaving people tired and hungry.
After Turner completed her verse,
she triumphantly yelled.
For Turner, appearing among the stars on We Are the
World was the cherry on top of what is arguably
the most celebrated era in her career.
Less than a month after that recording session,
she won 3 Grammy Awards.
Her success continued another quarter century until she retired after
her 50th anniversary tour in
2009. Turner died in May
2023 at the age of 83,
with the Guardians obituary reporting that her death came after
a lengthy illness.
Michael Jackson, the King of Pop,
died in 2009 at the age of 50.
His death was ultimately ruled to be a homicide,
the result of his doctor prescribing propofol,
a powerful anaesthetic used for sedation during surgery,
as a sleep aid. Jackson's contribution to We Are The
World was a major one.
Co writing the song with Lionel Richie and working in
the studio to create the bedrock track to which the
vocals were later added.
This included Jackson multi tracking his own background vocals for
Richie.
Co writing the song with Jackson was a memorable experience,
although perhaps not for the reasons most people might assume.
Richie recounted during an on stage Music cares event.
I am at Michael's house trying to write We are
the world and his dog is barking and his mind
a bird is yelling shut up at the dog.
Then a massive white Python appeared,
knocking over a stack of records as it approached Richie.
When Jackson said the snake just wanted to play,
Richie wasn't having any of it,
he recalled. I said you're out of your freaking mind.
It took me about two hours to calm my ass
back down.
I was screaming like the last woman in a hard
movie.
I was screaming so loud.
He kept saying why are you screaming?
I said baby, that's a snake.
Blessed with a voice so smooth it can make Silk
jealous,
Al Jarreau was known for jazz inflected R&B hits such
as We're In This Love Together,
Mourning and the theme from the hit TV series Moonlighting.
Jarreau died in 2017, aged
76, concluding a music career that spanned 6 decades.
As video outtakes from the We Are The World recording
session demonstrate,
Jarreau did not exactly nail his part in one take.
In fact, Jarreau, sharing a microphone with the unlikely duo
of Dionne Warwick and Willie Nelson,
repeatedly messed up, stepping on Nelson's vocals and missing his
cue.
That wasn't the only embarrassment that Jarreau would endure.
As The Independent recalled, he became completely starstruck when Bob
Dylan arrived.
Jarreau, who was a huge fan,
accosted Dylan to share his appreciation for his work.
According to Life Magazine's David Breskin,
who was in the studio at the time,
Dylan had just completed his verse in the song but
wasn't particularly happy with what he done.
It was at that moment that Jarreau cornered Dylan and
told him.
Bobby, in my own stupid way,
I just want to tell you I love you.
Dylan responded by avoiding eye contact and simply walking away.
As Dylan exited, Jarreau burst into tears,
sobbing. My idol. There's no denying that Ray Charles,
who died in 2004 at age 73,
held elder statesman status in the We Are the World
recording session,
having laid the groundwork for rock and soul music with
such piano driven classics such as What I'd Say and
Hit the Road Jack.
That certainly proved to be the case for Billy Joel.
As Life Magazine's David Breskin recounted,
Joel was awestruck when Charles entered the studio and was
physically shaking when he was introduced to him by producer
Quincy Jones.
Joel said. That's like the Statue of Liberty walking in.
In footage taken during the session,
Charles is seen nailing his part in one soulful take,
reading the lyrics by running his fingertips across a sheet
of paper on which they've been translated into Braille.
As he danced and stomped his feet.
Charles then took a seat at a grand piano to
contribute a keyboard flourish to the song,
Lionel Richie told Esquire. When Ray came in and opened
his mouth,
we just kind of all fell over in the corner
and said,
wow, did you hear that?
That's Ray Charles. It was just brilliant.
Waylon Jennings put the outlaw in the outlaw country genre,
known for such hits as Luchenbach,
Texas Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be
Cowboys and the classic theme from the TV show The
Dukes of Hazzard.
Jennings hard drinking, fast living lifestyle caught up with him
in
2002 when he died in his sleep due to complications
from diabetes at the far too young age of 64.
For viewers racking their brains trying to remember Jennings contribution
to We Are The World and Coming Up blank,
there's a reason for that.
Jennings didn't have a solo performance on the track and
doesn't appear in the video,
although he was there at the session and is credited,
according to The Independent. At issue were some gibberish lyrics
that Michael Jackson had written to appear at the end
of the chorus.
Bob Geldof, who was featured in the We're The World
chorus and would go on to launch Live Aid,
reportedly took issue with the words,
fretting that they could be misconstrued as mockery of an
African language.
Seeking an alternative, Stevie Wonder called up a Nigerian pal
who suggested a Swahili phrase instead.
The resulting argument dragged into the wee hours of the
morning and Jennings walked out declaring No good ol boy
sings in Swahili.
Ultimately, the Swahili line was cut,
but accounts differ as to whether or not Jennings returned
after.
It was the late Harry Belafonte whose desire to raise
money for famine relief efforts in Africa led to We
Are the World joined in as a member of the
chorus. Belafonte came to be known as the King of
Calypso for introducing Caribbean music into the American pop lexicon,
racking up such hits as Jump in the Line.
He died in April 2023 at the age of 96.
Belafonte was at the center of one of the most
heartwarming anecdotes to emerge from the recording of Where the
World?
As the chorus completed its final recording,
most of the participants launched into an impromptu acapella rendition
of
Belafonte's classic Banana Boat. As video of the moment indicates,
not everyone sang along, possibly because some didn't know the
lyrics.
Al Jarreau wound up taking control of the sing along,
animatedly leading the singers through the verses and choruses of
Belafonte's classic song. As the greeting,
Belafonte sang along until the song ended and the assemblage
of superstars honored him with a round of applause.
When We Are the World was recorded,
The Pointer Sisters were coasting on the success of a
string of hits that included the iconic I'm So Excited.
The group originally consisted of Anita,
June, Ruth and Bonnie Pointer before the ACT scaled down
to a trio.
When Bonnie left in 1977 to pursue a solo career,
The three woman version of The Pointer Sisters were invited
to participate in the We Are the World recording session.
Despite their bevy of hits,
none of the three were asked to take a vocal
solo,
but they appeared in the chorus in the years following
We Are the World.
June Poynter, the youngest of the four sisters,
struggled with substance abuse after exiting rehab in
1998. She told PEOPLE she was happy to be back
working with her sisters,
saying it's been a long road for all of us.
I was 13 years old when I started using drugs.
It's been a long it's almost like a lifestyle.
Sadly, she subsequently relapsed and was asked to leave the
group in
2004. That same year, when she was 50,
she was arrested and charged with cocaine possession.
She was eventually sentenced to 18 months in rehab.
It was during this time that she was diagnosed with
cancer,
which had come to metastasize in her liver,
pancreas and lungs. June Poynter died in
2006. She was just 52 when she finally succumbed to
cancer.
Anita Pointer was also on hand for the We or
the World session,
joining her siblings June and Ruth in the chorus.
As the 1980s gave way to the 90s,
the Pointer's sister's popularity faded and they would never recapture
the Lightning in a Bottle success they'd experienced during the
early 1980s.
However, the group continued to perform,
with Ruth's daughter brought in to replace June when her
issues with drugs LED her to be kicked out of
the group.
Anita Pointer died in December of
2022 at the age of 74.
Like June, her death was due to cancer.
She was preceded by daughter Jada,
who passed away from cancer in
2003, and sister Bonnie, who died in 2020 of cardiac
arrest,
her family said in a statement.
While we are deeply saddened by the loss of Anita,
we are comforted in knowing she is now with her
daughter Jada and her sisters June and Bonnie,
and at peace. She was the one that kept all
of us close and together for so long.
Her love of our family will live on in each
of us.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction
issues,
help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration website or contact Samsa's National helpline at One
806 Six Two Help
4357.